Not To Disappear
by em.matheson
Summary: When a dark magic threatens the world outside the Wall, Private Forbes is sent back to her birth place to assist the newly appointed Hybrid and his right hand destroy it. So long as their own secrets don't destroy them first.
1. New Ways

Steady aim and sharp eyes, that was what her mother had taught her. Always on guard, a split second to _make it_ or **break it**. Her mother had smiled proudly when she shot her first target under duress, clasping the cool gold pendant around her neck as reward.

She lets loose an arrow with one hand on the trigger, her other hand reaching for the magic in her bones. _More_ , her mind rages, she needs more of it. But her other hand is too busy readying another arrow. Eyes on the target, only half a second to steady her hand, the trigger releases with a soft puff and a click.

Her second arrow finds its home in the ground.

"Shit," Caroline hisses, throwing her crossbow on her back now that she realizes it's useless. Her arrows can do no more to the Shades than a gust of wind. Blindly grabbing for the walkie strapped to her arm, she hisses a warning to the others without realizing that the lines are dead.

She can't alert the rest of the guard without attracting attention to herself, but she'll need back up if arrows pose no threat. Guns had never worked quite right here, but she doubted they'd be of much use either way. Even a rocket launcher wouldn't do them much good now.

"Forbes," Brady hisses, "go get the General, I'll hold them off." Caroline hesitates, Brady has no magic and clearly whatever these things were, no mortal weapon could hold its own against them. "That's an order, Forbes," shooting her a wink, Caroline isn't sure if Brady is that cocky or welcomes death with open arms.

She doesn't question him a second time though, turning on her heel and stepping as quickly and lightly as she can through the fog. It had started up just before nightfall, setting everyone on edge. They'd all gone to watch the main gates though, leaving Caroline and Brady on the East portion of the Wall.

They hadn't exactly been expecting Shades.

Making her way toward the main gate, Caroline realizes that backup won't be of much help, the Shades are here too. Flimsy representations of corporeal forms, the pale Shades were more ghost than threat so long as their gangly limbs didn't touch you. The necklace is so cold, it freezes the blood underneath whenever a Shade steps too close.

She ducks a long, pale arm, plowing right into her General.

"Shit, Forbes," he groans, rolling immediately to stand back up.

"Just trying to help, General. My crossbow…"

"Bloody useless," he agrees, "they're coming at us from every point on this damn Wall." She wondered if her sword could hold its own against the Shades, the glinting ancestral symbols might give her some leverage in this battle. Drawing it, she swings an arc at the closest Shade.

Thanks Gods, she wants to pray, the sword finds its mark. Her arrows had gone through the Shades like smoke, but whatever powered her sword was able to clear one of their heads.

"Alright then, Private, we might win this one yet. Form a line, make the connection and bloody hold them off!" General St. John has disappeared back into the mist and meelay before he's even done speaking and Caroline is off to the East Wall, sword swinging freely. She can feel the other witches, part of a special force on the guard already touching her mind, begging entrance one by one.

Letting them in, she finally slows, drawing her marks. A star for the North, the guiding light home. The fork to her 6, a choice in the midst of chaos. To her right, she draws the sun and her left the moon, all creatures bound by ever changing nature. Despite her mother warning her the magic would only ever bring her pain, General St. John had insisted on all of his capable guards to be trained in at least the basics. It was her own curiosity that had lead her to learn more, despite the biting cold the pendant emitted.

Swinging her sword, she draws a quick line to each point, connecting them. She could do it all with her mind, draw her marks and connect them, but her magic is sluggish and she finds ease in drawing the marks with the tip of her sword. She goes to connect her moon to the guiding star, her final line, when Brady falls.

Glassy black eyes and flailing limbs, the creature he now is pulls himself from a heap on the ground, reaching clawing hands toward her. Caroline can spare Brady no thought, no last ritual. A split second, steady aim, and sharp eyes. Caroline draws the last line, the piece of gold burning ice where it sits just above her chest, and lets the darkness claim her.

On either side of her, the eternal flames flicker out, never to be relit again.


	2. Do The Right Thing

I've been away from this site for a time but I'm so glad to be back! The premise of this story is very loosely based off a book I read as a child though I recall so little of the details that it was able to take on a life of its own.

* * *

 **Do the Right Thing**

* * *

Private Forbes stood with her back to the Wall. It was 6 feet thick and solid stone, but she was sure that some unnatural cold still seeped from between the brick and mortar structure. Shifting her crossbow on her back, she eyes her perimeter. It's morning, thank goodness, two nights ago had been… well, nothing short of terrifying. Sleep had been rare since, everyone on edge for another attack. She shivers despite her regulation jacket.

A breeze ruffles her hair, but the flag 50 feet away doesn't so much as flutter. The flames that flicker about the perimeter wave gently as well, as though someone was simultaneously blowing softly on all of them at once. Yeah, something was totally wrong on the other side of the Wall, things long held back were suddenly starting to escape.

The flames that dotted the area between Mystic Falls and the rest of the world were to keep whatever the hell was in there contained. They were magic, those flames, they'd been lit before she was born and had held until that night. The ones closest to the Wall had gone out one by one and the shadows had slipped through.

They hadn't been relit, despite the best efforts of those that guarded the Wall.

They'd lost a few good men, their eyes had gone completely black as they lost control of their minds and bodies. She'd never seen anything like it, had never felt such cold burrow into the marrow of her bones. She'd felt Brady's life go out, somewhere from the darkness that had connected the witches on the Wall, she'd felt when he'd collided with their magic. Or what had once been Brady before his mouth stood open at a jaunty angle and his limbs moved as awkwardly as a newborn giraffe.

Shaking the thought from her head, Caroline reaches to play absentmindedly with her necklace. It had always been cool to the touch and was cold enough to notice around her neck in the past couple of weeks. During the past few days it had become downright frosty. She needed to remember to ask Bonnie about it. Bonnie...her rotation was due to pass by soon and Caroline was dying to know about all the yelling a couple minutes ago.

Sometimes this gig was brutal, Caroline hated guard duty. From her usual position all she could see were blank fields on either side of the Wall. The open spaces were called the buffer zones and the only thing that ever changed was the color of the grass. Four days of guard duty and only a few days of leave per year made sure that the grass was about all she ever saw of nature.

"What was all the commotion about at the gates?" Finally, finally Bonnie had made her pass back by, and with a warm cup of coffee. Gods, Caroline could kiss her friend, she was freaking cold.

"The Hybrid turned up," Bonnie leans her shoulder against the Wall and passes the steaming cup to Caroline, taking a short break from her rotation.

"He's here to relight the fires?" The coffee warms her up a little, but can't quite soothe the deeper chill.

"Get this," Bonnie drops her voice, "it's a new Hybrid, apparently the last one got trapped on the Other Side." The Other Side, the walkway between life and death. It was where the Shades were trapped and created, wisps of those who once were. Only a blow to the brain or whatever magic the Hybrid had could send the Shades back from where they'd eked out.

"Is that possible?" Caroline asks, her skin paling at the thought of being trapped on the Other Side. The Hybrid had been the same man for a century, something in their genetics gave them ridiculously long lifespans, and the thought of a new Hybrid at a time like this? It wasn't good at all.

"I guess so," she shrugs, "the new guy is fresh out of university. Enzo said he's never even been across the Wall."

"You've got General St. John wrapped around your little finger," Caroline gives her friend a knowing look. There were a small number of the group stationed at the Wall that could practice ancestral magic and they all trained with General St. John. He was always a little nicer to the ancestral force than anyone else and Bonnie took advantage of that. She said it was because she'd been training the longest with him, but Caroline knew they'd been sleeping together for the past two years despite the policies.

"What, like it's hard?" Bonnie laughs. Caroline rolls her eyes and another shiver runs through her body. "Care, are you cold? It's like 60 degrees and you're completely bundled up."

"I must be coming down with something, I've been cold since yesterday evening. Last night…I haven't gotten a lot of sleep the past few nights," Caroline trails off. Nightmares had chased her deep within the realm of her dreams with only the burning cold of her necklace keeping her tethered to this reality. The worse part was that some of her nightmares felt a lot more like memories. Almost as though the attack on the Wall had awoken something long forgotten in her.

"Yeah," Bonnie agrees, shifting uncomfortably, "I hope whatever the hell is going on gets resolved soon. But you need to worry about yourself right now, I'll talk to Enzo."

"Please don't, I'm fine other than the chills and the..." Caroline doesn't even get to finish her sentence before Liv is calling her name. Shooting Bonnie an apologetic glances and a wave, Caroline hitches her crossbow up higher on her shoulder and follows Liv's retreating back.

* * *

Enzo's office was one of her favorite rooms in the whole fort, he'd somehow managed to make it homey and had always welcomed her and Bonnie to make use of his library on magic and the big chairs in front of the fire. The room was packed with knick-knacks and as long as they were all dusted, her OCD took a backseat in favor of the warmth.

It isn't particularly warm in here today though, not with the windows blown open and Enzo's stiff posture. The man in front of him doesn't even turn around when Caroline pushes open the door. The magic though, she can't help the little shiver that moves through her as her bones seem to cool from the inside. The sheer power of the man in front of Enzo sends sparks through her veins. She has to force herself to step closer to the two men, each step forming ice between her joints.

The Hybrid then, she surmises, the only person who could walk to path between life and death without coming back as something else. The only person who could practice both ancestral magic and expression without his soul falling into the clutches of the shadows. Caroline's magic claws for his, aching for the power that runs in his veins.

"Private Forbes," Enzo nods by way of greeting, "I'd like you to meet Klaus Mikaelson, the new Hybrid." She approaches the desk, coming to stand in front of her commander. She chances a glance at Klaus, but he's already growling at General St. John.

"This is my guide?" Hot anger sparks at the indignation at his tone and her eyes snap to the pretty face curled into an ugly sneer. What a shame, he was actually pretty handsome when his mouth wasn't open and with the strict no fraternization rule amongst the guard, she'd put up with just about anything.

But questioning her ability to do her job? Hell no.

"Private Forbes is the only person at my disposal who was born beyond the Wall," the face that had been directed at Enzo turns to her with some surprise, "I'm afraid you won't find another available at such short notice. She's also one of my most powerful witches," Caroline doesn't deem Klaus with a look, but she can't help the smug grin caused by Enzo's biting words.

"Is that so? We leave on the hour then," Klaus stands, still sounding completely unconvinced, "if you'd kindly point me in the direction of the kitchen, I wasn't expecting another mouth to feed." Liv appears at the door again, like a shadow awaiting orders, leading the Hybrid down to where he could evaluate his supplies.

"What exactly am I expected to do with him?" She was pleased that Enzo had stood up for her, beyond pleased, but his committing her to whatever the hell he'd done without her permission? Um, no.

Her anger backs down a little when Enzo slumps back into the chair behind his desk, pressing his face into his hands, but she doesn't let it show on her face. "Caroline, I promise that I had no other choice," yeah, see, she wasn't having any of that bullshit.

"You always have a choice, the fork at our 6 means we always have a choice," she snaps. Gods, she knew the words by heart, having been dumped as a small child at the edge of the Wall, waiting to either freeze to death or that the mercy of some poor soldier would be her salvation. She never thought about what could have happened if Liz Forbes hadn't been on duty that night.

"Watch it, Private Forbes. You committed yourself to protecting the world beyond Mystic Falls and if I tell you that jumping will save the world, you'd better damn well jump," Enzo returns with as much bitter memory coloring his tone. "Right now I need you to help that man save us all, no matter your personal feelings."

"Are you saying we're in danger? Because Bonnie said that this guy is completely untrained and the last Hybrid got trapped on the Other Side."

"She was able to glean all of this while she was supposedly minding the perimeter for the past hour?" Enzo raises an eyebrow.

"So it's true? You're relying on two people who have no idea what they're doing to solve a problem that no one knows the full backstory of?" Caroline asks.

"I think both of you know more than you give yourselves credit for. We won't last the month, Forbes. Not those of us here at the Wall. And without us…" he doesn't need to finish the thought. She thought of Bonnie, the warm and fierce friend she'd had her entire life, of April, the newest recruit who was still only a child. She thought of Tyler and Liv, Matt and Vicky and Jesse. She thought of Enzo.

"Never took you for a blind faith kind of man," Caroline grumbles. "Guess I'm supposed to make the right choice?" Enzo nods, frowning at her choice of words, "fine, what do I need to do?"

"You know the terrain better than anyone, the language, the customs. Someone is using powerful expression to summon the Shades and make them stronger than I've seen. Brady's will not be the only life lost in this, but you can damn well make sure that the number stays as low as possible. The current Hybrid is going to need all of the help he can get," Enzo doesn't bother hiding the dislike in his tone.

"Enzo," she can't think of what else to say. She wants to tell him that she isn't qualified, he needs to send Bonnie or Luke. She isn't a strong enough witch and it had been ages since she'd returned to her home, to the people she'd been born to. He was trusting her 8-year-old memory to know the terrain? Gods, they were up shit creek without a paddle.

"I trust you, Caroline, I trust you to do this," she takes a shaky breath, but lets him approach her, lets him wrap comforting arms around her, "come now, gorgeous. Don't let the bastard grind you down, right?"

"I can't believe you're sending me into Mystic Falls with only that jackass for back up," Caroline grumbles, slipping from Enzo's grip. "I was a promotion when I get back."

* * *

Oh, she was going to get her fucking promotion. That, a raise, and a nicer room. Freaking Klaus barely glanced at her, had only jerked his head toward the Wall and barked gruffly for them to open the gates. Seriously, she was taking time out of her schedule to take him somewhere he hadn't ever been to and not even a fucking thanks. It was like he was raised in a barn!

"Alright, Private?" Looking up, Caroline sees Enzo standing atop the wall, watching the ancestral force lead them the 20 feet into Mystic Falls. They were on their own after that. She pulls her regulation jacket tighter. Gods, why was it so cold here? Klaus looked plenty warm in his light jacket and her damn teeth were about to start chattering.

Caroline gives Enzo a quick salute, grabbing at Bonnie's hand as she passes. Her friend gives her a wink, retreating back to safety while Enzo salutes back, disappearing behind the structure shortly after. Turning back around, she sees Klaus has already set off. He's going to need to walk the line between life and death by the time she's done with him, she thinks, storming off at a quick pace.


	3. Fossa

**Fossa**

* * *

At this point she was willing to do anything. Klaus hadn't spoken in two days, _two gods damned days_ and it was killing her. She was a people person, thrived on meaningless chatter and arbitrary conversations. Klaus had ignored every attempt, stopping only when she asked, while they pushed further into the terrain.

Shortly after they'd left the Wall, he'd told her that they needed to find the first site, he'd need the connection to summon the Hybrid's servant. She'd given him the general directions to the first location, silently screaming because it was a two-day walk in decent weather and she does not want to be stuck with this guy any longer than she had to be.

It was also really freaking cold. She managed to keep her teeth from chattering, to keep him from seeing how cold she was, but she was about ready to curl up in a ball and have him leave her for dead. He'd probably be thrilled.

The closest site was a decrepit white house perched on the edge of the forest that separated the small kingdom from the Wall. There were three sites total, the others were deeper into the territory, but the abandoned house was said to be the most powerful of the sites. And all that stood between them and the house was a dense wall of trees, only broken by small clearings and the occasional body of water.

When Klaus wasn't pushing ahead at a nearly unreasonable rate, he had his face pressed in an old looking book, glaring at her when she interrupted his focus. Klaus was apparently one of _those_ people who couldn't handle even the slightest bit of noise when he was trying to study. So she sat silently at their camps, wondering why the animals here made no noise.

It's odd though, she's spent so much time in her own mind that she begins to recall fuzzy memories of the forest, rushed and dark. She doesn't have to pull out her paper map when they pass the smatterings of forget me nots that always dotted the perimeter of the ancestral sites, she already knows exactly where they are. She finds her memories unsettling.

"Just past that thicket, the house is on the other side of the clearing," she speaks up. He doesn't indicate she'd even spoken, only increases his stride. Ugh, like it was easy to keep up with him to start with.

She can feel it too, the ancestor's power, it hums higher than Klaus' magic and practically sings next to her low grumblings of power. Enzo had told Klaus that she was one of his most powerful witches, but that was a lie if she'd ever heard one. Caroline was hardly able to summon a campfire, let alone the massive smokestacks that Bonnie managed. Enzo pushed her as if he knew for a fact that she had more in her, but nothing had ever appeared.

Huffing through the final pack of trees, Klaus had long since made his way into the clearing, she lets the power wash over her. It only makes her teeth chatter more, the cold burrowing more deeply into her mind. She can't tell anymore if her necklace is so cold that it burns or if her skin has cooled so much that it's actually become hot.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Klaus snaps from where he'd thrown his stuff down under an old tree near the dirt path that snaked to the front of the house. Standing in the shadow of the big house sparked memories she couldn't quite reach.

"Excuse me?" Did he seriously just ask her that? After traveling through the freaking woods for two days, dodging mud and sinkholes, the stick that seemed to be permanently lodged up his ass was about to make her snap.

"Your teeth have been chattering for two days, Private. Please don't tell me you're sick," Caroline is pretty sure he couldn't look more disgusted if he tried.

"Just cold," she snaps back. She'd told Bonnie she was coming down with something, but other than being unbelievably cold, Caroline felt fine. Not so much as a sniffle or one of those awful throat tickles.

"It's almost 80," Klaus drawls, tossing a blanket at her and unpacking whatever the hell he was using to summon his servant. The word servant irked her even more after his treatment the past few days.

"Oh, I'm so sorry that my being cold is such an inconvenience, great and powerful Hybrid. I'll try and contain my involuntary reactions next time." She snatches the blanket, not caring that it's his, and wraps it around her shoulders. Turning, she glances out over the clearing, There's absolutely no cover, but at least she could see if anything tried to sneak up on them.

"Do that," he grumbles under his breath.

"Seriously?" She swings on him, "you've been a jackass since the moment we met. What crawled up your ass and died?"

"Nothing I can't handle, I assure you."

"Oh really," she scoffs, "because you're handling this really well already. Here's the thing buddy, the people here? They trust you with their lives and if you're going to be such a fucking prick, don't even bother. They'd be better off without you."

"You think I don't know that? Here's the thing, sweetheart," he mocks, "I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, alright?" His voice carries through the clearing, reverberating off the trees so it seems even louder.

He hisses a curse when he sees her flinch. "Look, I'm not good with people on a normal day, let alone when suddenly the weight of the world is resting on my shoulders and the man who was apparently my biological father up and dies before he can teach me a damn thing about my fucking genetic duty or whatever danger we suddenly find ourselves in."

"Wait, really? You didn't know the Hybrid was your father, which would mean that you didn't know you were the Hybrid," Caroline pieces it together. It had to have been why he'd spent his entire life beyond the Wall.

"Not until a few days ago," Klaus sighs, "and I feel like a piece of shit dragging you into this mess with me. I can't protect you because I have no idea what I'm doing and now I've suddenly got an entire fucking country counting on my ability not to fuck it all up."

"You know, if you'd actually said any of that to start with I could have helped you, and I can protect myself well enough," Caroline snaps. She'd feel a lot worse for him if he hadn't been such a giant ass, but her anger wasn't going to get them anywhere she knew. "Why here anyway?" She looks around, pulling the blanket tighter as a breeze swirls around the clearing.

"I'm summoning my...father's servant," he's unaccustomed to the word, "but I've never summoned anything beyond an inanimate object, so I figured I needed as much power as I could get."

"Do you know how to summon? Like, have you ever done it or just read about it?" That was at least a basic enough spell if you know who you were looking for.

"I went to Whitmore," he offers. She knows the name, all the kids with ancestral magic beyond the Wall went to the school. They provided classes on the subject, training the students how to safely harness their powers. At least they had that going for them, but he wouldn't have learned expression...that was a problem.

She lets him go about making the marks, glancing at a big, old looking book every so often. He'd managed the symbols pretty well, they were drilled pretty heavily into all the kids. She didn't recognize the North point, but she realized that it had probably been whatever text he was consulting. He had the Hybrid's Book with him after all, but if he wasn't using the guiding star… maybe he did know a little Expression. Maybe they had a paddle, despite being up shit creek.

"See you on the Other Side," he winks before his image flickers, a shadow falling over him. She wants to shout that it wasn't a funny joke, but movement catches her eye. Caroline shifts closer to Klaus, even though it sends another strong shiver down her spine. Whatever warmth she had gained from his blanket that was wrapped around her shoulders had quickly turned to ice in her veins.

The shape is moving closer to where they sit coming from the opposite direction and not bothering to hide. It's a little too large and too dark to be human, and the realization had Caroline moving to sit directly next to Klaus, desperate to grasp his flickering hand. Funny how such terror could drive her to want to hold hands with the devil himself, but Caroline pushes the thought from her mind.

She lets out a deep sigh, the Shade will be upon them before Klaus would come out of his trance and it was up to her. Caroline stands, gripping her blanket around her shoulders to keep herself as warm as she can before she's swinging a sword. Her crossbow is packed, she was dying to try the arrows that she'd carved the ancestral symbols into. If that was what gave her sword the ability to cut through shadow, a crossbow with the same power would be a huge advantage.

She drops the blanket when it stands only 20 feet from where Klaus still sits, swinging her sword in a figure 8. It's a paler Shade, easy enough to kill with a blow to the head. It reaches dark limbs toward her, grasping with hands further than it knows how to control. She'd be willing to bet on her life that this Shade was freshly killed. They'd happen upon its corporeal form soon enough.

Sure enough, a quick strike to the neck sends the head flying and she's able to drive her sword between where its eyes should be with little effort. It leaves no trace it was ever on this plane, shadow melting back into the earth. She's almost sure the grass looks a little dry but she can't tell enough to confirm or deny her suspicions. Unsettled wasn't a strong enough word for what she felt, not anymore.

Turning back, Klaus continues to flicker where he sat. His magic was so different than hers, but somewhat similar to what they were able to do at the Wall. Apparently the last Hybrid had taught the ancestral guards that trick. By merging into one magic, they could build a different sort of wall, one that the Shades couldn't pass. But the dark that enveloped them all was unnerving to her. He would spend half a lifetime in it.

Wrapping herself back in Klaus' blanket, Caroline busies herself with flicking through the pages of the book he'd left open beside his prone figure. She totally wasn't supposed to, and she doubted that he'd ever carry the thing again once he knew the spells, so this was her one chance to know exactly what the Hybrid could do.

She'd just gotten to a fascinating bit about the Dark Hall, some Other Side lingo, when Klaus stops flickering and opens his eyes. The woman that crashes into his circle with him thankfully distracts him from the fact that she was reading the book.

The woman lets out a long string of colorful curses, smoothing her hands over her legs and brushing off stray bits of grass. Without having seen anyone on the roads, Caroline had forgotten how odd Mystic Falls fashion was. It had been a while since she'd seen anyone from here that wasn't already dressed in clothes that the population wore past the wall, but this woman looks like she keeps an eye on the current trends. And apparently the current trends were plunging necklines and tight pants. Caroline feels out of place in her khaki uniform, long since streaked with mud and whatever else they'd stumbled through in those damn woods.

"Well, well, seems like you aren't so useless after all," the woman that appeared with him stands, seeming impressed by Caroline's presence, "but what's this?" She prowls toward her, reaching a manicured hand for the necklace around her neck.

"Excuse you," Caroline snaps, flinching back and holding the necklace protectively. Who the hell was this woman? And where the hell did she get a manicure in freaking Mystic Falls? Without technology, painted nails should have been impossible.

"Please, it's not like I want the dusty old thing," the woman drawls, but steps back to give Caroline some space, "can't you smell the power coming off of it? Klaus, come take it off of her."

"And here I thought you were _my_ servant," he snaps but moves for the necklace clasp anyway. So this was the Hybrid's servant. Her snappy tone and barked orders sent a little thrill through Caroline, even though the woman was antagonizing her. Klaus totally deserved whatever hell she would put him through.

"No!" Caroline flinches away, reaching to hold the clasp as well. "Why the hell do you want me to take it off?"

"You're freezing, aren't you?" Well shit, Klaus' servant hit the nail right on the head. "Take it off," she nods again at Klaus and this time Caroline accepts his fumbling fingers at the base of her neck.

"Fucking devil clasp," he hisses, and the necklace falls from where it had sat on her cleavage for years.

"Oh...oh," she shivers. Though it had taken the cold days to set in and freeze her from the inside out, the warmth is immediate. It thaws her bones, her blood rushes through her veins for the first time in a week, and suddenly every layer she's wearing is too hot.

"Looks like you've found yourself a very powerful witch," the edge of the woman's lips quirk up in Klaus' direction but it comes across as more of a sneer than anything else. Her smile is just as mocking when she turns to address Caroline, "hello, Princess."

"Katherine, what are you…" Klaus starts, just as Caroline speaks.

"What was that?" Caroline reaches at the empty space on her neck.

"A damper to suppress your magic," Katherine says, ignoring Klaus's line, "likely from whoever was trying to keep your identity a secret. But without the damper, even the weakest of witches can sense your bloodline." Caroline's head snaps back, her eyes narrowing as they dart between smug Katherine and confused Klaus.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I was raised by Elizabeth Forbes, captain of the night guard and as far as I'm aware, she's my mother. I don't want to hear another word about this." Raising a finger in warning, she gives each of them a significant glare before stalking off.

She'd always known that her past was a little more colorful than she was able to remember. Liz had never brought it up, but the pack she'd carried to the Wall as a child had held enough clues that when a straggler had told the guard that the royal family was dead and the princess gone, Caroline had an inkling of an idea. The necklace, Liz had explained, would keep her safe from the magic that would only bring her pain.

Caroline hadn't known it was a damper, she would have ripped the thing off the other night if she had, but she knew the gold pendant was tied to magic. That she was strongly tied to it as well. Letting loose a calming sigh and counting to 10, Caroline moves to rejoin a smirking Katherine and a pissed off Klaus.

So they were back to that. Super.

"Klaus, you're going to need to find the spell that sends you into the Other Side," Katherine tells him, passing the book into his hands, "you'll have to make the trip eventually. Don't want you getting lost in the dark, now would we?" Katherine looked like that was exactly what she wanted. Klaus curls his lip at her and hauls off a distance, likely to concentrate.

"These arrows," Caroline pulls the ones she'd carved from her pack to show them to Katherine. Might as well ask when they weren't in the heat of battle. "Are they effective against the Shades?"

"It's actually a shame," Katherine snatches one of the arrows, "that you weren't the Hybrid instead of him." She examines the arrow, lightly tracing the symbols. It wasn't exactly an answer, but her reaction answered Caroline's suspicion.

"I barely know more than he does, we're both more than a little lost." She isn't sure why she feels the need to defend Klaus, it's not as if he'd ever done the same for her, but if there's going to be any hope that they can defeat whatever was creating the Shades, she had to believe in him.

"You're already loyal to him," Katherine's lips curl into a cruel smile, "beware, little Princess, the Hybrid has a nasty habit of sending those he loves into the Other Side."

"How long have you served them?" Caroline ignores the barb, instead trying to ask some pertinent questions. She bristles at the pet name though, she'd have to make it clear that she was either Caroline or Private Forbes.

"500 years now, give or take a few decades," Katherine shrugs. "Bound for all eternity or face the Other Side and be trapped there forever, those were my choices. I made the one that kept me alive."

"And the Shades? They're unlawful Expression and since you seem to know everything else, do you know who's making them?"

"Of course I do," Katherine scoffs, "but that's my secret to hold right now." Caroline's head snaps to Katherine's dark gaze before the woman continues, "I might be bound to the Hybrid, but I'm sure as hell not loyal to him."

"You can't just…" Caroline sputters. But she already knows that Katherine can and will hold that information over their heads. All the willful traits she'd thought would give Klaus a kick in the ass earlier were actually kicking _her_ in the ass.

"Oh, I can and I will. My help in destroying the nameless evil that torments your people for your own help. Simple enough bargain, don't you think?"

"A bargain from me?"

"Well," Katherine pouts, "I need _you_ to help me get a bargain from _him_."

"And how the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"He thinks you're cute. Use your feminine wiles, or what you have of them," Katherine gives her dirt covered uniform a disgusted look, "and convince him that you need what I've got. I know exactly where to start."

Caroline hadn't noticed the bag that had come crashing through into Klaus' circle originally, it was barely larger than a handbag. Katherine swings it over her shoulder easily, heading to intrude on Klaus' concentration. Caroline rolls her eyes, but follows out of curiosity.

"You're both going to have to change," Katherine waves an impatient hand, "we'll need to lay low and those duds are awful to start with."

"And what are you expecting us to change into?" Caroline puts her hands on her hips. Klaus provides no backup, only continues studying his damn book. She has no doubt that Katherine was now trying to get her into a similar outfit to herself, but she had a job to do and a silk skirt wasn't going to get it done. Even if her uniform was absolutely disgusting.

"Unlike the two of you, I'm always prepared." Sure enough, Katherine produces two bundles of clothes, lobbing them toward Caroline.

"Oh, so you were expecting me?" She asks, hands on her hips. Katherine, she expected, knew a hell of a lot more than she let on.

"Of course not, those are mine," Katherine shrugs. "You won't fill out the top quite as well, but otherwise we're close enough to share."

"Seriously," Caroline groans, turning to Klaus, "we don't have to travel with her, do we?"

"That's fine," he grumbles, furiously turning another page, not even listening to the conversation but reaching for his own new set of clothes. Apparently jeans weren't all the rage here either but his set looked a hell of a lot more practical than hers.

"For the love of...it's page 162! Can we deal with her now?"

"Oh, I like you," Katherine grins.

* * *

It was safe to say that Klaus was pissed. Maybe even livid. She couldn't help it, Caroline reasoned, you can't just leave a powerful book open like that and expect it not to get read. If anyone thought to ask her, the damn thing was begging to be read. It wasn't like he'd had the time so someone might as well have an idea of what they were getting into.

Enzo had told her they were going in blind, and Caroline Forbes went into nothing blind. Bound, gagged, and hogtied maybe, but never blind.

Katherine had won out about the clothes though, much to Caroline's duress. The tight black top and silky emerald skirt were nice and light now that she wasn't completely frozen, but she felt a bit exposed. How the hell was she supposed to use a sword when her legs were tangled in fabric? She'd been sorely tempted to leave her cargo pants on, or at least force a trade from Katherine, but the woman had refused to budge until the uniform had been shoved in a dusty corner. Klaus had basically told her to shut up and do what Katherine said. Lives on the line and all, he'd taunted.

Klaus' black pants and thin white shirt kept drawing her eye too, for all the wrong reasons. He'd long since pushed up his sleeves, their pack hanging off one shoulder. Her's had been abandoned back at the house, along with their now useless changes of clothing. Katherine had emphasized the importance of packing light and not drawing attention. She had frowned at the crossbow slung over Caroline's shoulder, but Caroline's attachment to the thing had Katherine backing up quickly.

Caroline turns her head from Klaus' ass, giving the scenery an accusatory look. Could there be Shades hiding in a near by clump of trees? Perhaps around a bend? They weren't fond of daylight, she reasoned, but the newer Shades didn't have enough sense to fear the sun and the more powerful Shades could withstand the rays.

She had actually learned a little from Klaus' book.

"How exactly am I supposed to move in this thing?" Caroline grumbles from the back of the line, pulling up a handful of her skirt.

"If you were a little nicer, I might give you some breeches to wear underneath," Katherine says, walking easily in her own clothes.

"Please," Caroline gives the other woman a dark look when she turns to give her another smirk. Katherine was downright gleeful the first time she caught Caroline's straying eyes, now the bitch just looked smug.

"That's more like it," Katherine grins snidely, "you can have them when we stop next."

Caroline gives her back the finger. Whatever, Caroline thinks, at least the scenery had changed a bit. The trees had finally thinned out a bit and they were almost to another clearing.

"Hold!" She barks suddenly, pushing past Katherine on the trail. Klaus gives her a little more resistance, he must have already figured out what the pile on the side of the road was. "Oh, no no no…" Klaus finally lets her by and oh gods, it's a regulation khaki uniform, stained with recent blood and streaked with dirt. Caroline sinks to her knees beside the body. It was still lukewarm and she recalls the Shade that had found her earlier.

"Caroline, we can't do anything for him," Klaus is beside her, trying to pull on her arm.

"We have to give him last rites," she whispers. He starts to argue, but Katherine must stop him. She doesn't move while Klaus and Katherine unfurl the limbs, revealing the face of a young man. She had no idea who he was, just another face on the Wall, but she would take his tag back to Enzo if it killed her.

"You do it," Klaus tells her before moving back to the trail. He either doesn't know how to perform the last rites or the scent of death makes him uneasy.

Caroline presses a kiss to her two fingers, laying them on the man's brow before tracing the symbol of the North star to guide him home. On his chest she traces a fork, a choice in the midst of chaos. She traces the sun on one shoulder and the moon on the other, because he too was bound by the laws of nature.

"Leave my bones to sleep," she begins lowly, aware of the two watching her from the road, "all my layers will become reeds, all my limbs will become trees, all my children will become me." Caroline hesitates, but presses a kiss between his eyebrows.

"And in the darkness I will meet my creators."


	4. Alone With You

Apologies for the delay, the start of the year is always a bit odd.

* * *

 **Alone / With You**

* * *

Klaus had still not spoken a word, other than what he'd said when they'd stopped to give that poor soldier last rites. Caroline was beginning to see a pattern, and it was not one she liked. Katherine, meanwhile, had taken to badmouthing every Hybrid that she'd served over the last 500 years. Klaus' father had been a dreadful bore who had managed to stay alive for a long time, but the Hybrids before him had been a bit more colorful.

"Actually, I'm a little upset," she pauses, trailing next to Caroline, "this one is so silent, I might never get any good dirt on him either."

"Tell the next one there was a tree growing up his ass," Caroline grumbles. They'd long since left the shade of the forest and had now been crossing open plains for hours. There we're building starting to appear, a house here and there, with a cluster of them not too far away/ Katherine kept promising that they'd get to a stopping point soon, dark was beginning to fall and Shades roamed more freely here.

She'd already taken out two Shades with her new arrows, buried them between blank eyes. Katherine had watched appraisingly while Klaus stood still with his cool glance. Katherine had flung a dagger strapped to her hip at a third before telling Klaus that he had the most beautiful protection team Mystic Falls had ever seen. He'd hadn't looked impressed.

"Pity there might not actually be a next one. It's genetic, which would require a woman actually wanting to procreate with him, let alone having sex with him. Shame too, he's much cuter than the others," Katherine gives his backside an assessing look. Caroline can't even tell if he's mad by the set of his shoulders anymore. His back had been coiled tightly since they left the body.

"What a coincidence, I thought the same thing," Katherine barks a laugh at Caroline's comment. Klaus seems to hesitate for a split second before increasing his already brutal pace.

Caroline rolls her eyes, but considering he's carrying literally everything, she supposes that she can't complain too much. Katherine slinks along, keeping to the edge of the path. She'd pressed the woman for more answers about how she'd come to be called the Hybrid's servant but she somehow didn't think that sex slave was the actual answer.

She and Klaus were still no closer to knowing their goal, what they were actually supposed to accomplish when they set out and it was beginning to be a problem. She had no idea which direction to lead him and couldn't even think of anything she knew that would be of any help any time soon.

Of course, it's not like his attitude was helping them get any further along.

"Princess?" Caroline bristles at the name, but inclines her head toward Katherine all the same. "How good are you with that thing?"

"80 yards on a clear day," she answers with some pride. But wait… "why are you asking?" Caroline pauses, turning to scan her 6. Katherine had stopped a few yards back, eyes still scanning the dark from the side of the road.

"We're being followed," not a drop of distress in her voice, "it's a small group of Shades, but could be signs of bigger things."

"Best to hole up for the night then," Klaus comes up behind Caroline, approaching her on the left. "Either of you familiar with the area?" Caroline eyes the perimeter uselessly. Maybe in the daylight, maybe if the area was inhabited, maybe then she could pull from a long lost memory, but right now she's feeling pretty fucking useless.

"Two streets over," Katherine turns to watch Caroline's face, "I know a place. We can barricade in and it should have plenty of booze."

"I'm a little more concerned about food," Caroline points out, but her companions ignore her. Katherine takes up the lead, turning off the beaten path and heading through knee high grass. They duck a few fences, climb over an old retaining wall, and dart between blackened homes.

The skirt Katherine loaned her actually moved well. It didn't snag on the rusty metal, didn't wrap around her legs when she needed to move quickly, and the dark colors kept her better concealed than her discarded cargo pants and khaki shirt. Not to mention, despite it not actually being her style, it looked a hell of a lot better on her than the dark khaki color.

Her eyes catch a name on the building that Klaus and Katherine duck into, she commits it to memory before following them through the doors. _Mystic Grill_. It doesn't ring any bells, but she knew from her studies that it was in the main town. She would have grown up close by.

"We're spending the night in a pub? Are there beds or…" Caroline trails off, giving the location a curled lip and disparaging gaze.

"There's tequila," Katherine saunters in, hopping the bar in one smooth motion, "and booths. Once you have the tequila, you won't care as much about the booths." She grins like her logic should be congratulated.

"How is it that this place never got raided? I'd imagine this would be one of the first places that was raided," Caroline sets her crossbow down near the front door.

"Magic," Katherine winks.

"Right," she rolls her eyes, "I'd still rather an abandoned house."

"It'll be better than the forest," Caroline frowns when Klaus agrees with Katherine, but she can't really argue with his point. "You wouldn't be willing to tell us where we're headed?" Katherine shakes her head at him, "thought not."

"I need to eat. If Princess here manages to live through sleeping in an old bar, I'll tell you what you need to know in the morning." Taking the tequila with her, Katherine slips from behind the door, making her way to where there must be a door to the back.

"We're losing time and lives due to your inability to communicate. I'm beginning to lose my temper, Katherine." Klaus growls from where he's leaning against the bar like he hasn't a worry in the world. She huffs on her way out, tipping her head back to groan in frustration.

"I'll put some feelers out while I eat," she seems pissed about the task, but her face is more severe when she turns around, "the people here know as much as you do, and considering you know next to nothing," she lets her implication hang in the air and is gone the next second.

And once again, Caroline is left staring helplessly with a pissy Klaus. Grumbling about something, or everything, he stomps around wedging things against the doors and making sure the windows are sealed. She doesn't bother telling him that Shades can walk through walls, he clearly needs to wear off some steam.

"Back to this, huh?"

"I apologize, love. I'm just bemoaning my own birth and wallowing in self pity while being told if I don't figure out what no one knows, we're all doomed." Another chair slams against the front door.

"Despite the fact that I know your apology wasn't sincere, it's been a sucky week, I'll give you that," she commiserates, perching on a barstool. "But you're also not going to figure out anything new with your current attitude, so you can start with that," she shrugs, "might help."

"Are you always such a know it all?"

Bristling at his question, she snaps back, "are you always such a jackass?"

"Depends on whom you ask, I might go 70/30 but my sister might tell you it's a lifelong condition." A sister, Caroline pauses, so he had siblings but didn't know about his dad?

"I work for the government, I'm used to watching people make incredibly stupid decisions and then having to deal with the consequences."

"Oh, I can't be that bad," he scoffs, but frowns when he turns toward her crossed arms and raised eyebrows, "please tell me I'm not that bad."

"For all your faults, you don't treat me like I'm stupid. I'll give you that," she shrugs.

"I'll take it," he wanders back behind the bar, eyeing the foreign labels. "I won't continue to apologize for being frustrated, otherwise nothing else would come from my mouth, but that will require your willingness to accept the poorer side of my personality."

"Is there a better side?" He shoots her a glare over his shoulder. "I get it, you're not good at admitting you're lost. But we'd get to the point of all this a lot faster if you actually consulted with me on things. We're a team."

"A team," he mulls over the word, examining a particular bottle, "alright then, let's share some knowledge. I know nothing about this kingdom that I'm supposed to be from," Klaus trails off, running a finger over the bar. Caroline watches from her stool, waiting for him to say more. "We learned the bare minimum at Whitmore, simply that those of us with magic likely had ancestry tracing back here. I wasn't even the strongest witch in my family."

"I can't tell you much that would help us right now," Caroline admits, "but I can give you a solid analysis of the topography, how many inhabitants there are, which cities are the largest, and an amazing overview of their economic structure?"

"Those are all numbers, didn't Enzo say you were from here? And Katherine…"

"Don't," she interrupts before he can go any further, "please don't think much about what Katherine said. The royal family here disappeared ten years ago and just because I turned up at the Wall ten years ago as well doesn't mean there's any link. Enzo had me study everything I could about this place in case anything like this happened I guess." Klaus doesn't respond, only continues reading the labels of old bottles, occasionally brushing away some dust so he can see the words.

"Alright then, I suppose we'll start with what you know," he selects a bottle, pouring two glasses of the stuff and sliding one over to her.

"I don't really drink," she slides the glass away, just a fraction before she's glancing at his unimpressed stare, "ugh, fine. But only because the past few days have totally sucked." Klaus grins back, pushing her glass back with his other hand. She hadn't seen him smile, not in the three days they'd spent in each other's company and she's completely struck by how boyish he looks. Having just graduated Whitmore, he can't be much older than her, maybe 5 years at most.

"So how many people live here? Considering we've yet to see a soul?" He gestures for her to go ahead and drink, knocking back his first quickly. She sputters when the glass hits the bar again, empty, but composes her face.

"People began fleeing Mystic Falls about 500 years ago," she begins trying again to remember the exact story, "there was a feud, I can't remember over what, but hundreds died in the conflict. The royal family was completely wiped out, as were most of the nobles. Once the dust settled and, I want to say it was a third but it also could have been a quarter, of the population left, they reorganized and found a distant cousin of the royal family.

"They were able to rebuild, the economy had grown and things were thriving again but then 10 years ago the Royal Family disappeared and the Shades began appearing. No one was sure if it was the same thing that happened the last time. Records either weren't taken or destroyed from the first incident, but after that almost everyone left. All that remains are…"

"Record keepers and those unwilling to leave their homes even in the face of death," Klaus surmises, pouring her another drink when she finishes her second. He drains the rest of his glass in solidarity.

"Those who can't leave was actually what I was going to say," Klaus frowns so she continues, "the exchange rate is horrific, most of the people here have no friends or family past the Wall, and that's without the rampant discrimination. The people who got out were those that could afford to. The people that stayed have been hunted and butchered for years and unable to do anything about it."

"I didn't," Klaus flushes, pausing to choose his next words carefully, "I apologize, I wasn't aware. They didn't teach it at school, no one ever even spoke of it."

"Why would they?" Caroline scoffs, face flushed, "no one helped. No stories ran on the news, no one came to document what happened, these people, _my people_ , were slaughtered and the only people that actually had any clue of what was happening thought that our magic would save us if we deserved it. Now that this evil is escaping beyond the Wall, now people care."

"Are you sure you aren't their princess?"

"You don't have to be a citizen of Mystic Falls to care, Klaus. Whether you knew it or not, these are your people too."

"And I'll fight like hell to save them," Klaus leans down on the bar, his face only a few inches from her and holds her gaze. She can see that he means those words. Hybrid or not, grumpy antisocial loner or not, Caroline feels those words reverberate between them like some unspoken promise.

She had never given much thought to how she could save this distant home of hers, she had only focused on working with Enzo to get as many across the Wall as they were able. It was their secret mission, one that had bound them when she was 16 years old and a fresh face amongst the guard. But now she had another person to help her, someone powerful.

"As much as I'm sure they appreciate it," Caroline leans in close, enjoying the way his breath holds, "we have no idea what the hell we're doing."

"Well, I suppose we'll have to figure it out then," he grins, letting his breath puff out. Her nose wrinkles, he smells of alcohol but then again, she probably does as well.

"You're very attractive when you smile," she ghosts light fingers over his lips, watching them move with rapt attention.

"You're very attractive all the time, although perhaps only slightly more so when you've got one hand," his hand catches the one she still held near his face, "with your finger on the trigger and the other balanced on the very end of your arrow shaft," she's barely listening while he toys with the ends of her fingers. "The look of concentration before you shoot is awe inspiring."

"Ok kids, let's take it down a few notches before both of you cream yourselves or something," both of them snap backward when Katherine's voice sounds from the doorway. Whipping her head around, Katherine gives them a wink and a salacious grin.

"Katherine, how was your…" Caroline trails off when Katherine approaches the bar and notices a smear of blood on her cheek.

"A girls gotta eat and before either of you ask, I killed no one," she holds her hands up in defense and snags the bottle from Klaus.

"How about seriously injure?" Caroline levies with a glare, watching Katherine knock back the bottle.

"Took what I needed, sealed, healed, and sent them on their way," she shrugs. "As if I'd kill my only food source in this gods damned place. Do you think I'm some sort of amateur?"

"Actually, Katherine, neither of us are entirely sure what you are," Klaus responds, stealing the bottle back and pouring another glass from himself and Caroline.

"I'm cursed," she pouts, batting her eyelashes at him, "if you promise to release me from an eternity of servitude I'll give you whatever you want."

"Tell me why you're cursed and I might consider it,"

"Playing games already, Hybrid, I'm liking you more and more already. I'll consider your terms, how's that sound?"

The two continue their bickering and Caroline can't be bothered to listen. She tells their direction that she's going to slink into a booth and shut her eyes for just a moment. It's a little short, but she's able to sort of curl up into it and lean her head back on one of the blankets they had packed.

Klaus was beginning to become more of an enigma than she'd initially expected. More of one even than when she'd woken up ten feet away from him this morning. He was very clearly attractive, she didn't have to like him to admit that. His personality had taken care of the whole, we're the same age and completely alone, thing so far and she hadn't really given it much more thought than that. But when he was considerate and warm, when he was fierce and liked that she was fierce. Well, she might not be able to hold herself accountable the next time they were alone and he decided to have another personality breakthrough.

Katherine on the other hand, she was a threat yet to be assessed. The blood on her face and her mentions of eating had set Caroline's hackles on edge, her age and connection to the Hybrid even more so. She kind of liked the woman though, Katherine's sharp wit and clever humor reminded her a little of Enzo and that was _normal_ in a time when literally nothing else was normal. She'd have to decide how close she was going to let Katherine stand though, the woman was very open about her ulterior motives.

But did that make her more trustworthy?

She never did complete that thought. Somewhere between the sounds of Klaus and Katherine hurling challenges at each other and the weight of the day, Caroline fell asleep.


	5. Mothers

I do apologize, it's been a while! Spring is my busy season to start with and my dream job comes with odd hours. I'm hoping to go back to a slightly more regular schedule in the future.

* * *

 **Mothers**

* * *

Caroline had woken first, partly out of habit, but also she didn't drink a metric fuck ton like Klaus and Katherine last night. She might suppose that the two would be fine when they woke up due to Katherine being whatever the hell she was and Klaus being whatever the hell he was. She already had a headache and gods, she was freaking starving.

They'd found a kitchen last night, behind the bar, but everything had long since expired. Caroline was seriously hoping for a can of something but she suspected that this was one of the first places to be looted. Katherine might have hidden the liquor, but given her diet, she apparently hadn't taken the same care with the food.

After rummaging through empty cupboards and shoving old shelves away to see if anything had fallen, it hadn't, Caroline gives up and slumps against a wall. What she wouldn't give for the watery coffee and rubbery eggs on the base right now, even though she'd spent the better part of her life complaining about them. But she doesn't have crappy base food, just alcohol and the tiny fire she's trying to distract herself with in her hand.

Since Klaus had taken off her damper, her magic had been incredibly strong, she'd spent a portion of the walk yesterday summoning little fires in the palm of her hand, watching them grow and then pulling them in tight like the flame on the end of a matchstick. Katherine had instructed her on how to summon a couple other things she'd never tried, a light breeze, a puddle of water.

Everything with Katherine was a taunting challenge, which was why Caroline knew she'd managed to pick up the new tricks so quickly. Nothing quite like a smirk and a condescending comment to light the fires of success. Literally.

"You're up early, Princess."

"Dammit!" she jumps, the little flame momentarily growing to the size of a dinner plate, "why the hell are you sneaking around?"

"I've decided to tell you something," Katherine hums, examining her nails from where she was leaning in the doorway. "You and Klaus seem to be getting along well, I thought you might appreciate a reward."

"Seriously?" Caroline huffs, standing up. Gods, these hunger pains were brutal. "I never agreed to your little scheme and I don't even know what the hell you want anyway."

"And here I had so much hope for you," Katherine pouts, shifting so she's taking up the whole doorway. "I want my freedom, Princess. 500 years of servitude, don't you think I deserve that? I've dropped enough hints I had hoped you might have actually picked up on one of them."

"Maybe you're bound to the Hybrid for a reason," Caroline levels with a frown. Katherine had her secrets. Her blood-stained collar secrets that somehow allowed her to abstain from eating solid food. Maybe those secrets made her deserve where she'd landed herself.

"And you know what that reason is?" Katherine steps closer, pressing right into Caroline's space, "a man made a choice for me, Caroline Forbes, and I've been dealing with the consequences for 500 damn years."

"Wait, what?" Caroline pauses from eyeing a way out of the kitchen and lets Katherine press against her, "what do you mean? What happened?"

"Find your family's spell book," Katherine hisses in her ear, still pressing closer, "and convince Klaus to free me. Then I'll tell you the story."

"Maybe you should…"

"This looks cozy," Klaus, of course, manages to come in at the absolute worst time. Caroline doesn't even have time to fend her off before Katherine has her tongue shoved halfway down her throat. Her momentary surprise causes the moment to go on longer than she would ever normally allow, eyes snapping open and arms finding a way between Katherine's chest and hers.

"Ugh!" Caroline finally manages to push her off, Katherine was oddly stronger than she looked, stomping to the other side of the room, "that wasn't what it looked like."

"Really?" Klaus raises an eyebrow, "it looked a bit like Katherine was whispering into your ear and only decided to kiss you when I walked in." Well, that was actually exactly what had happened, and she tells him as much. "What was she telling you then?"

"We need to find my family's spell book, apparently," Caroline's brain starts racing through all of the questions she now has and freaking out over the complete lack of answers she also has. Heading back out into the main area, she grabs a map from the pack as well as the Hybrid's book and moves to sit at a two seater table.

Klaus slides in opposite of her, taking the book and moving no further. Caroline was stressed enough without him having to ask her what her given family name was. They both had the same sinking feeling that the map she was scouring wasn't going to be of much help either.

"Before you two ask a bunch of useless questions that neither of you has the answers to, let's cut to the chase," Caroline lifts her eyes to glare at Katherine who pulls a chair up to their table, "she doesn't know where the book is and it's not in the castle. The last Hybrid already checked there," she shrugs at Klaus, "so you're going to take her to the Other Side."

"That's not allowed, or even possible," Klaus argues, flipping through the pages of the book. Caroline had managed to glance at all the page titles and couldn't recall anything that sounded remotely similar to what Katherine was talking about, but she'd only stopped at the parts that looked as though they might be of some use.

"She can see…" Caroline starts to bark, breaking him from his quick scanning. At his look, she flinches from the tone of her own voice.

"Fuck's sake, Caroline, you've read the damn thing and I'm positive she's devious enough to have it all memorized by now, so I'm not entirely concerned about stealing off to a back room to read it." Well, she reasons, at least this time he seems more exasperated than pissy. She'll take it as an improvement.

"Page 236," Katherine gives her a smug look and it's all she can do not to stick her tongue out at her.

"Thank you," Klaus mutters, turning to the page. "Oh, so I can actually...a conduit?"

"You need a dead thing to assist her across the divide. In the sake of saving time, I'm the dead thing," Katherine looks pleased with herself, delighting in the shock that crosses both of their faces when they snap up to stare at her with open mouths.

"What," Caroline starts, Klaus is still gaping, but Katherine hushes her quickly,

"Close your mouth, Hybrid, you're a necromancer for fuck's sake, act like you're not surprised by it," he gives her a look that could kill, but obligingly stands to retrieve his sword to draw the marks. "No time for questions, Princess, we'll have company soon enough," Katherine picks the knife up from the table, slicing open her hand and smearing the blood on Caroline's arm. Caroline moves from her chair, her arm dripping with Katherine's blood, when Klaus grips her shoulder, standing when he places her while drawing his marks. "Make it back from the Other Side," Klaus connects the fork to the moon, "and I'll tell you everything."

Katherine had, unsurprisingly, timed her last comment to finish right as Klaus drew the final line between the moon that tied them to nature, and the interlocking triangles that acted as their North star. Everything went dark, and if Katherine's smug face was the last thing she saw before death, they were going to have some serious problems.

* * *

Opening her eyes, she thinks they might still be closed. She's blinking though, she knows that, so her eyes must be open. It's so dark she isn't sure she could see her hand unless it was an inch from her face, her heart starts beating faster. She jumps when a rough hand grabs at her own, pulse spiking, but it's only Klaus.

"I hate this fucking place," he drops her hand when he realizes he doesn't have enough control over her direction, instead pulling his arm around her waist and tucking her against his side.

"What are you doing?" His warmth pressed directly into her side is actually a comfort here but her question sounds more accusatory than she meant it.

"It's pitch fucking black and there are all sorts of traps, I need you as close to me as possible so I can navigate twice the width," he hisses back, pulling her forward. "If you get lost, it's likely I wouldn't be able to find you."

"Oh, that's super comforting," he darts sideways, dragging her along with him. Caroline wants to be sick.

"I won't let you get lost, Caroline. As long as you don't touch anything but me, you'll be fine. You're not to disappear," he says the last part with affection and she's not sure if it's just the Other Side making him crazy or if she's misreading the situation, so she ignores it, saving it to think about for later.

"Don't touch anything, got it. Where are we exactly?" She vaguely recalls a map on one of the pages of his book.

"We're in the front hall, soon we'll cross into the entryway and it'll lighten up a bit. We need to get to the Great Hall."

"Is it like a palace?" she asks, testing her steps before pressing her weight down. He's moving a little faster, he'd crossed over only a couple of times.

"Something like that, didn't you read the book?"

"Seriously? Are you still on about that?" She can't see his face, but he's totally raising an eyebrow in her direction. "It sounded like a palace from what I read, but I wasn't entirely sure. I was reading pretty quickly." Klaus propels the two of them through what feels like an air shaft, and then it's like walking through a doorway.

The whole room is in black and white, as if the entire world is monochrome, and fuzzy as well. Like everything was made of sand and a breeze was pushing the particles around. Klaus is in color though, his hand shifts to let her step away if she wants, but she stays glued to his side. His warnings about getting lost and being trapped here forever were enough.

"Come along now," his arms tightens back around her waist, hand pressed against her hipbone, "we've almost there, love." Nope, it's still there, she knows she heard it this time. The affection in his voice makes the pet name sound so much different than his normal biting sarcasm.

"That's new," this time he can see when she raises an eyebrow at him.

"What can I say," he shrugs, "I've grown fond of you. Wouldn't walk into Death with just anyone, you know?"

"So you're a total grouch when we're back in life or whatever, but here you're downright jolly? Is that a character trait of all the Hybrids?"

"All of a sudden I feel like I'm not drowning," they pass over greyed out tiles, through a room filled with furniture in varying shades of grey. "I've no idea why, but I'm not complaining."

"Maybe it's the fact that Katherine is actually giving us some information."

"I'd like to think that it might be that after our talk last night, I don't feel like I'm fighting this alone."

"You never were," she tells his as he steers her through another doorway. "I've stuck with you so far, I'm here till the bitter end." And she means it, whether or not they like each other, she's not about to abandon him. It just so happens that she's started to like him, just a little bit.

"Caroline," he pauses, halting her with him. He sees it too, the older woman standing stock still in the doorway between rooms. He feels it, the way her heart stutters against her chest and her body tries to pull forward. They don't look much alike, other than the same color hair, but he wonders if she takes more after her dad.

"Mom?" She wants to move toward her, wrap her arms around Elizabeth Forbes. She wants the quiet strength her foster mother carried, to absorb it into her veins so she can take back that courage to Mystic Falls. Klaus' warning sounds vaguely in her head.

"You can't touch her," Klaus reminds gently, tugging her back from where she'd taken half a step forward.

"Hey, honey," Liz smiles, remaining where she was. She nods toward Klaus, he returns the gesture warily. This was only his second time in the Other Side, he wasn't sure whether or not to trust the spirits that inhabited it.

"Is this?" He trails off.

"She raised me, outside the Wall I mean," Liz isn't exactly who she was expecting to find, she wouldn't have the answers they needed, but she's happy to see her anyway.

"What are you doing here? Not that I'm not happy to see you, but we'd called someone else."

"You can't call the ancestors from the Other Side, but I didn't want you to leave empty handed." Liz gives her a sympathetic smile, eyes dropping to where Klaus had a vice grip on Caroline's arm. That's good, Liz knows, he'd haul her daughter out of here kicking and screaming if it came down to it and that's good.

"Ancestors?" Caroline questions. She knew about the ancestors, their ancient beginnings and their violent ends at the sites. But they hadn't called the ancestors, they'd called the woman that had given birth to her.

"Witches persecuted for their magic that die violent deaths," Klaus mutters.

"Powerful witches that were martyred, actually," Liz amends his answer.

"So we're back at square one? I don't know what to do anymore," tilting her head back, Caroline tests the limits of Klaus' hold on her. His fingers only grip her waist tighter, tapping a rhythm out in varying amounts of pressure. She isn't sure what it means, that rhythm, but it steels her nerves. "We don't know what to do anymore, Mom."

"I don't know about him, but I know that you're strong and brave, and most importantly, you're resourceful. I can't tell you what to do next, but the fork at your 6 means you always have a choice," Liz says. She turns slightly, as if she hears something over her shoulder. "You two need to leave now," she turns back to face them, "you're needed among the living."

Klaus gives the woman another nod, a fierce gesture of solidarity. Liz presses a hand to her lips, blowing a kiss to her daughter before stepping backward into the next room.

* * *

"Caroline? Come on, love, wake up," Klaus shakes her gently from where she'd slumped into his lap.

"The trip took a lot out of her," Katherine swing's Caroline's blade, prowling a circle around the two, "she'll wake up soon, but not if we can't get out of here." Looking up, he sees another Shade slip through the wall.

"I left the back door in the kitchen unblocked," Klaus pulls Caroline into his arms and stands up, "if we can make our way back there, we can get out." Katherine swings the blade at a Shade that steps too close, clearing its head from its neck, but another quickly takes its place.

"There are wards on the Hybrid's house," she swings again, "hold them off, I'll get her to the house and come back for you."

"You expect me to do this by myself?"

"You'll see," she doesn't bother explaining any further, accepting Caroline when he passes her along. "You don't want to see what I'd look like if they took me," Katherine's dark look is enough to silence him on the subject, "I'll be back."

Turning, Katherine flees the room in a flash. The back door through the kitchen isn't closed before she smells the rot that the Shades produce when they're killed. Fumbling quickly, she leans Caroline against a wall, and presses a bleeding wrist against her mouth.

She'd purposely forgotten to tell the two that there was a several day period after someone other than the Hybrid crossed to the Other Side where they needed to come back on their own. Caroline was still likely trapped in the dark, unaware that she was only slowly coming back. Katherine's blood would speed up the process, piecing Caroline's mind back together in only a few hours.

Klaus, Katherine knew, would be fine. She'd come back to the bar in an hours time and find him slouched in the middle of his bloodshed coming down from his psychotic murdering high. It was the same with them all, the subconscious slip from their own minds into whatever power the Hybrid gave them. His already protective nature over Caroline Forbes would secure his transition, Katherine had been very careful in setting that up.

Picking her back up, Katherine quickly makes her way to the house that she'd served for 500 years. This time would be different, she knew that Caroline's heart would force him to release her from her servitude. She only had to make sure the girl didn't die in some ridiculous fashion in the next few days. Katherine's plan was balanced on the tip of a very sharp blade, and if one of the Salvatore brothers fucked it up, there was going to be hell to pay.

If Caroline Forbes died and woke again, Katherine knew that she would be sentenced to a fate worse than her promised eternity on the Other Side. And that wasn't going to happen.


	6. Numbers

**Numbers**

* * *

There's someone in the room with her, she can tell the second her brain comes out of the fog. Given the rustling of fabric and long exhale, it was Klaus. Katherine surely wouldn't have seen the point in keeping vigil over a prone body. Caroline keeps her eyes closed a little longer, savoring the soft bed and the rest she feels in her bones. She hadn't slept well in five long nights and she felt like a new person. A happier person who could take on the world.

"You're awake." His words sound more like a prayer than an observation. She wonders how he knew, she hadn't moved and had kept her breaths low in her chest.

"You sound so surprised," she opens her eyes, staring up at the unfamiliar ceiling before rolling to face him. They were in a house, she notes, and a nice one at that. Klaus looks visibly uncomfortable in the chair he's in, watching her shift beneath cotton sheets.

"It's not everyday one crosses to the Other Side and comes back as anything other than dead," he cocks his head, rising to come closer. She shifts just enough for him to sit beside her one the bed.

"We didn't get the information we needed, the whole trip there was completely pointless," Caroline whines, recalling why she had even been asleep. She suddenly feels less rested and more like the sinking feeling of wrong the Other Side had left in her.

"I don't think your mother's intention was for you to come back from that place without any hope," Klaus leans closer, his elbows on his knees.

"We didn't learn anything, did we?" Rubbing her temples, Caroline stares up at him. He's dressed in new clothes, trading the white linen for a dark grey. The divot in his collarbone stands more starkly against the dark fabric, the shadows draw her eyes lower.

"The fork to your six means you always have a choice, Caroline," he repeats the words her mother had told her, the words she'd thrown back at her commanding officer, the symbol that the ancestors entrusted to them. "So, we don't have the full story and we don't have the answers we need, but what do we have? I know you've got some numbers locked away somewhere up in that head of yours."

He's right, she knows. Freaking out isn't going to help, but a list might. A vague semblance of a plan, an idea, a spark of hope. Deep breaths, Private, she tells herself in Enzo's voice. Bonnie's smile that starts on one side of her face before lighting up the rest backs up her mental pep talk.

"We've got you," she starts, he nods while one side of his mouth twitches upward, "and your book of expression. We've got the crossbow and my sword. And we've got Katherine who has a more solid story that either of us has been able to assemble."

"See? Not so hopeless after all," Klaus stands, holding a hand out to pull her up with him. "Katherine went off in search of a few things, but I think she'll be ready to expose what secrets she's kept so close to her chest."

"And if she doesn't?" Caroline rolls her shoulders, stiff from resting and takes a quick evaluation of her body. There's blood still smeared across her arm where her sleeves are pushed up past her elbows. If feels like her hair got taken down, there's no ache in her scalp from sleeping in a bun, but now there's no tie on her wrist. The skirt that Katherine lent her is freaking spotless.

"I think she knows the stakes," Klaus says over his shoulder.

He leads her through winding hallways, shining marble floors and tables with large mirrors and flowers in crystal vases. The walls are white, the clean white and not the sterile white that the base on the wall seemed to manage, and the ceilings are tall.

"Where the hell are we?" She lags behind him, startled by her own appearance. Dirt streaked, a dribble of dried blood escaping from the corner of her lips, hair a complete mess. No time, her mind reminds her. There's always time for a ponytail, and she pulls a ribbon off one of the crystal vases.

"My house apparently," Klaus frowns when he reaches a fork in the hallway. She gives him a skeptical look. He decides to go left.

"Good to see you, Princess," Katherine gives her a smug grin from over the top of a book when they make it to the library.

"It's good to be back," she admits. She'd take Katherine over floating in the darkness. She'd never actually tell the other woman, but she's come to like Katherine just a little bit. Well, better before their impromptu makeout session, but she's still just a little pleased to see her. Katherine looks like she'd read Caroline's mind.

"Before you waste air with asking me to spill my whole sordid tale, I'll beat you to the punch and tell you what you need to know," Katherine puts the book down and watches her two companions with a wary stare. "Over dinner."

"Seriously?"

"Yes," she picks up the book again, "you both need something substantial and I need to iron out a few details."

"Have you not had enough time?" Klaus asks, voice dangerously low.

"Look, Klaus," Katherine sets her book down and gives him an exasperated look, more exasperated than usual which is impressive, "this all happened five centuries ago and I'm not exactly spending a lot of time on the dark path of memory lane, alright? Go cook some food or whatever." She flicks her hand in their direction and Caroline can feel the aggravation rolling off of Klaus. This wasn't the time though, she tugs on his hand to remind him of that, they didn't have time for petty fighting, not when there were bigger problems.

"Aren't you supposed to work for me?" Klaus grumbles, accepting Caroline's silent point. He still threads his fingers through hers.

"If you make me cook we're going to be playing a really fun game of who's plate did I put arsenic in," Katherine gives them both a dark grin before pulling her book back up to cover her face and end the conversation. Caroline can feel Klaus bristling again, but since their hands are still intertwined, she has some leverage when she drags his ass back out of the room and sets them off in a direction. She doesn't know which direction, but as long as it's away from Katherine, she's alright with wherever they end up.

Klaus follows along, she's surprised he doesn't reach out and knock one of the ornate decorations off a side table as they pass like an angry cat. Eventually, once they'd apparently made a square (she thought it was a square at least), he takes the lead, pulling her hand in another direction.

Oh, she thinks blithely, they're still holding hands. His grip is just hard enough that she can't pull her hand away easily. His hand is warm, perhaps the same size as her own. Enzo had pointed out early on during weapons training that she had rather large hands, but she'd never given it another thought. Except for her regulation sidearm, apparently they made the guns smaller for women and she had to go several levels above Enzo's head to chew someone out for it.

They're in the kitchen, she realizes when he pulls her through a door. A bland looking room that didn't have the same ornate touch as the rest of the house. Instead, the room is done almost entirely in white subway tiles and old looking appliances.

"I suppose my father didn't cook much," Klaus notes the same details, dropping her hand so he can inspect the pantry. "I know you're dying to ask," he adds while she bounces on her toes next to a wood burning stove.

"You know how to cook?" The words come out more forcefully than she intends and it sounds like an interrogation rather than a question.

"My older brother decided that we all needed to have applicable life skills so all of us took home ec." Klaus starts actually pulling out ingredients, running his hands over old labels trying to determine what was still good.

"All of you?" Caroline hesitates briefly before heaving herself up onto one of the granite counters. She isn't sure what to do with herself in this foreign place and that itself makes her anxious.

"Mmhm," Klaus hums from the pantry, "do you know how to cook?"

"I was raised on a military base on the edge of a war zone, what do you think?" Caroline snorts. She's much less interested in her cooking experience and a lot of interested in who all these siblings were.

* * *

"Breakfast for dinner," Katherine frowns at her plate. There's a pile of pancakes in the middle of the large table, the best Klaus was able to do with a few powdered ingredients and an old jar of syrup.

"They're much better with buttermilk," he comments, ignoring her look of disdain, "but I was able to make due with well water." It wasn't a good meal, not be any stretch of the imagination although with the way Caroline had already managed to choke down two of the dry pancakes you wouldn't know it.

Katherine only makes another disparaging comment under her breath and tops her wine off several inches higher. They eat quietly, the lack of food over the past day or so had gotten to both Klaus and Caroline, despite her eating half the pantry while he cooked. He was impressed by the way she was able to unhinge her jaw, but also a little terrified. Katherine looked disgusted.

"It was incestuous," Katherine begins suddenly, deciding that going through the worst parts of her history are better than watching Caroline eat her pancakes like a python. Half a pancake falls out of Caroline's mouth. "My relationship with my sister, I mean. Elena and I hadn't started out like that, but we became...corrupted."

"There was a time when Mystic Falls wasn't separated from the rest of the world by the Wall, when our customs and times matched despite the magic that seemed to spring from the very Earth, but only in our kingdom. There are a thousand stories of what happened, a mixture of rumor and dreadful gossip. Some had speculated that it all linked back to the first Hybrid, somehow the shadows and the Hybrid were linked. Others thought that perhaps the royal family, with all their power, had let something loose in an effort to seize power from the nobles.

"The real reason the Other Side had collided with Mystic Falls was actually much simpler. It had resulted in the deaths of thousands, the shadows that seemed to seep from the Earth gained power they should not have and the rest of the world walled Mystic Falls in. It had all stemmed from teenage love."

Klaus sighs because of course, this entire mess had all stemmed from one stupid decision. Caroline is watching Katherine with rapt eyes and had been since the older woman had said the word incest.

Elena was just under a year younger than Katherine, 11 months and 14 days apart, their mother spent their youth joking about her fertility. Three dark haired beauties, all girls, and all the talk of Mystic Falls. Tatia was a few years older and relished her maturity, leaving Katherine and Elena as playmates for the entirety of their lives.

Katherine was daring and fun, while demure Elena played the role of the sweeter sister, innocent and naive. "Sweet but selfish," Katherine frowns, "deceptively so. And she had this ability to complicate even the simplest of ideas, I can't really call it anything but a talent. She could also make anyone fall in love with her, a trick I never mastered.

"Sweet little Elena suckers these two idiots, brothers from one of the old noble families like ours, into falling in love with her. It was stupid," she pauses, remembering something particularly painful, "and I was jealous. I would have done anything for an ounce of the attention they gave her. And I did, we did. She and Stefan came first, those stolen moments of first love," Katherine rolls her eyes. "He was a nice enough man on the surface, but Stefan was the kind that controlled his temper and unleashed it quietly and sadistically. Damon was much simpler, you always knew where you stood with that one.

"Damon wanted Elena, but he got me, a consolation prize of sorts. I knew it too, those lustful glances at my sister. One day she reciprocated that glance, and we...well. You can probably figure it out." Caroline is staring open-mouthed at Katherine, Klaus has to physically restrain himself from mopping the syrup off her chin. He's much less interested in this part of Katherine's story.

"Stefan, ah. It didn't go over well," she grimaces. "I was more or less excluded from the group after that, but I covered for Elena enough to know that in the end she never did choose a brother. It hurt them both, having to share her like a fucking toy, but sweet, selfish Elena was never fazed and it wasn't long before the two started thinking ahead.

"They wanted to live forever, Damon and Stefan, and they were willing to drag my sister along with them. The idiots didn't even realize they had the wrong sister until the spell had been performed and Elena was dead. And they were," Katherine's voice cracks and she trails off for a moment. Some things you just can't find the words for, Caroline knows. There are some things that there just aren't words for.

"Silas had been a friend of my mother's, one of the most powerful witches we had. I went to him first, I had no magic and my sister was dead...I was desperate and smart enough to know that there would be no covering this up. He was horrified, I think," she pauses again, stumbling her way through the most difficult parts, "I've always just thought that they wished it had been Elena that had survived.

"But he helped me, nonetheless. Silas kept me hidden and protected, he and I figured out how to control the bloodlust and he gave me this ring to walk in the sun," she flashes her hand their way for a brief moment, showing the worn silver band and stone. "Somehow, and don't ask because I don't know, in all of his trying to reverse what Damon and Stefan had done to me, Silas managed to create the Other Side.

"Meanwhile, Stefan had murdered nearly everyone we knew and Damon had gone into a destructive spiral of self-pity. While Silas and I were trying to come up with a way to fix everything that had happened, the two of them unleashed hell on earth. I couldn't tell you which of them took it to the next level, the past 500 years has reeked of both in different ways. That's the story of the Other Side. The shades play a different role.

"The shades are a substandard form of necromancy, a product of Expression. Defeating them is simple enough in theory," Katherine scoffs, "just take out the necromancer. In practice, we need to take out a powerful and immortal witch who has managed to avoid death for 500 years and make sure he crosses to the final crossing on the Other Side. The first part is up to the two of you, united but equal. I'll take care of the crossing.

"So there you have it," Katherine swirls her wine, avoiding looking either Caroline or Klaus in the eye. "The whole embarrassing, sordid tale of how the world was destroyed by a girl who couldn't make a decision and the boys who refused to take no for an answer."

The room is silent, Caroline still processing the family trees and how they intertwined while Klaus tried to sort through what he'd been able to read in his head. There weren't any spells for this, the creation of the Other Side was a complete mystery, something that hadn't been covered in his book. He'd been hoping for answers from Katherine's story, but he'd wound up with a story about incestual threesomes and a syrupy Caroline who was still gaping over the incestual threesomes. And no answers, that was the most important part. He still had no fucking answers.

"You were bound to the Hybrid, I guess Silas did that. Why?" Caroline's voice cracks, bringing him back a little from the anger that was beginning to boil his blood.

"Clever girl," Katherine frowns, slurring the words a little. When she shrugs it off, Klaus guesses that even though she's got the tolerance of a man five times her size, she must have been drinking all day. "I am the product of necromancy, therefore I must be controlled lest I become a shade to be controlled by anyone other than the Hybrid. Makes sense in theory, but..." Katherine trails off and raises an eyebrow at Caroline.

"We're going to talk about the rest of this in the morning," Klaus says, looking at both women, "right now I think we all need to regroup for ourselves."

Katherine doesn't say anything, only grabs the bottle of wine still open on the table before disappearing toward the stairs. Klaus stands when the first stair creaks, inclining his head toward the kitchen, indicating that Caroline should follow his lead. She's thankful to leave the heavy atmosphere of the room behind.


	7. Made of Stone

**Made of Stone**

* * *

Caroline figures out what he's doing quickly enough, drawing her along the dark path. She hadn't explored the house but he must have gotten the run down from Katherine and set things up earlier. Caroline would be impressed by his forethought if she wasn't so wholeheartedly sure that they were about to make the wrong decision.

"If we ride, we can make it back the the Wall by tomorrow afternoon, maybe late evening," Klaus tells her, pushing open the stable doors. He'd picked up a bag in the kitchen, food and supplies Caroline guesses, and attaches it to one of the horses. She turns to eye the back of the house, even though she has no idea where Katherine's room is. There aren't any lights on anyway, and the sight of the looming dark house unsettles her already shaky nerves. _Something isn't right_.

"Ok, I'm a little confused as to why we suddenly have horses but there are only two and both are saddled." He doesn't respond when she turns back to comment on his prep work, only continues packing the supplies they'll need to make the ride. "Klaus," Caroline lingers by the door, "we can't just leave Katherine. She knows where we are and where…"

"And where exactly has trusting Katherine led us? We only just now have access to a reasonable form of transportation," he flings an arm out to gesture toward the horses and even they step back, "which she delighted to inform me yesterday, no solid information, no plan," she watches him warily when he approaches her. "Look, Katherine clearly needs some time to herself. Today was," he pauses and doesn't even try to fill in the word, "we'll leave one of the horses for her if that's what you want, but we need to get a head start. Caroline, something is making moves on the Wall, I can feel it."

Biting her lip, Caroline considers his plan. He's absolutely right about whatever they were up against moving toward the Wall, with the Hybrid out of the way for the past week, whoever it was would be stupid to have missed the opportunity. On the other hand, abandoning Katherine, even if they did leave her a horse, settled badly in the pit of her stomach. Despite Klaus' feelings, Katherine had actually been something of a help. Caroline felt more sure of her own magic and of Klaus' fledgling ability, both things they would desperately need to trust.

Something wasn't right, she could read it in the wild look in Klaus' eyes, she could hear it in his voice. But, Caroline realizes, they need to protect the Wall. That's her job, personal feelings aside, and so that's what she has to consider first and foremost. And maybe her strengthened magic and Klaus' new found confidence were what they needed to make it there. They'd get to the Wall and prep the soldiers, come up with a plan of attack. Katherine would meet them when she was ready.

"Fine, but we're leaving the other horse." She leaves no room for argument. Caroline had always trusted her gut, and even though everything in her was screaming no, leaving a horse felt like a good decision. Now she just had to deal with being pressed against Klaus for the next twenty-four hours and hope that whatever his change in attitude didn't distract either of them from the task at hand. _Get through the battle, then explore attraction._

"Of course," he shoves the book of Expression into the saddle bag last before tying it shut, "we'll ride through the night and break in the morning. If we pick up again around noon, we should make the Wall before nightfall."

"Riding through the night, are you joking?" Caroline hisses. "There are shades and freaky incest-y necromancers!"

"Well it's a good thing you've got great aim. And we're not related, so I'll make sure to just concentrate on their being necromancers part, alright?" Klaus swings himself up onto the saddle and offers a hand back down to her.

"If we get killed, I'm haunting the shit out of you on the Other Side," she grumbles, accepting his hand. It was going to be a long ass night. With him facing her back, Caroline freely let herself pout about the mess she'd gotten herself into this time.

* * *

The problem with riding a horse quickly through a night full of shades is that there isn't a ton of room for idle chitchat. At one point she had whispered the last rites as they flew past a human-sized lump in the road, but that was all she had been able to do for the shape. Klaus had apparently reverted back to his previous stance of not speaking. So much for worrying about distractions, he had it covered.

And so, Caroline considers the previous events of the past 24 hours while the sun rises to her left. She pondered which brother they would wind up facing at the end, or could it be both? She was pretty sure it was going to be Stefan, it was always the quiet ones, but Klaus had frowned and brought up a few points about the possibility of it being Damon when they'd stopped to let the horse break for a minute. She was totally right though, men couldn't be trusted on things like psycho homicidal maniacs and Katherine totally would have backed her up on that.

Katherine though, Caroline had gotten to thinking, Katherine wasn't human, she was sure of that. A dead thing, the woman had called herself when she'd smeared red blood down Caroline's arm, despite the fact that her blood actually ran red. And when there had been shades in the area, they hadn't even spared her a second thought, going instead mostly for Caroline. That had been a super thrilling discovery, her being the most alive of the trio in this situation was the actual worst. From Klaus' book, she'd been able to surmise that there were varying levels of shades, the lower on the totem pole they were, the less corporeal.

Katherine was nearly human, so she must have been in the last room when her spirit was pulled back to her body. A dead thing; despite her status, Katherine _felt_ alive. Her skin was cool, but not cold. She still blinked away tears, still bled. Her heart was still beating in some altered way. What dead thing, Caroline wondered, what dead thing was still basically human?

Katherine did have…

"Stop," Caroline barks, pulling Klaus from his concentration. His arms jerked the reins around her, but the warmth from his back was already chilling her to the bone.

"What?" He sounded startled, eyeing their perimeter for danger.

"Stop the fucking horse, right now." _Shit._ Caroline is off the horse as soon as it's been slowed to a trot, stumbling over her own landing in an effort to move away from him. Klaus swings his leg over, dropping to the ground and approaching her slowly.

"Caroline," she doesn't even let him finish her name.

"Did you drug Katherine, Klaus? Please, please tell me you didn't." _Fuck_. He'd known she would have figured it out at some point, but he'd been banking on stress and sleep deprivation to keep her from figuring it out until they had at least gotten to the Wall.

He can't even really defend himself, it was exactly what he had done and there wasn't any point in lying to her. Klaus stands a foot away from the horse, eyeing her like a wounded animal.

"You did, didn't you?" Gods, what he wouldn't give not to hear the terror in her voice.

"I couldn't...I don't trust her."

"You don't…" she gapes at him for a moment, her cheeks darkening. "You're fucking kidding me, Klaus. You don't trust her, that's it?" She moves toward him now, circling, driving him away from his weapons. She is the predator, he realizes too slowly, she holds the power.

"She has ulterior motives, and I don't trust those." Caroline can hear her blood pounding in her ears.

"Rhetorical question. It's Katherine for fuck's sake, of course she's got ulterior motives. I mean, she's been trapped as your servant for the past 500 years, can you really put it past anyone to have ulterior motives at that point? Don't even try to defend yourself," Caroline shoves a finger against his chest, pushing him further and further away from the horse.

"She became your servant 500 years ago because some stupid idiots made a choice for her and killed basically everyone she knew. Now she's trying to do right by us and literally everyone she's ever known and you, _you_ come along and take that from her too. And you know what, maybe she is a selfish bitch, but that doesn't mean you get to take away her choices."

"I," he won't argue with her, not when she's right, but she's pushing him _the wrong way_.

" _Shut up._ You are no better than the men that trapped her. You're no better than the," she hesitates, her breath trembling from the force of her anger. "You don't even deserve to know." Turning, she swings herself back up on the horse and he stares up, entirely at her mercy. The skirt Katherine had given her, emerald green and still spotless, rides up over her leggings the angle of her position giving it just enough give to billow in the breeze. He'd draw this picture a thousand times, Klaus knew it even though the moment only lasted a split second. Private Caroline Forbes may not have made much of an impression in her khaki uniform and tight bun, but Caroline Forbes, possible queen of Mystic Falls is a vision he will never forget.

"Caroline, you can't just," her face stops him before he's able to finish, cold and stony.

"Don't you dare tell me what I can and cannot do, Hybrid. I've read your damn book, I know you can get there by yourself. But I just can't risk having my back watched by someone who thinks he knows better than I do." She gives him a mocking salute, "see you at the Wall, Hybrid," before turning the horse East and riding toward the sun.

Klaus watches her figure as it quickly disappears over the next hill. It's only when he looks down that he realizes that she's left one of the saddlebags for him. Oh, Klaus thinks, he doesn't deserve a woman like Caroline Forbes. Swinging the damn thing over his shoulder, he sets out in the direction they'd been moving toward. He'd have to dig through his bag of tricks at some point, but right now he needs to think about what all is about to go down.

* * *

"That fucking motherfucker," Katherine watches the same sun rise from her balcony. They've got quite the head start on her and she's going to make sure Klaus lives long enough only to regret his decision. Caroline surprised her, she was sure that the girl was on her side, especially after last night.

Vervain, he'd laced the second bottle of wine with vervain. Caroline hadn't known about that bit, Katherine flung through the house, upending furniture as she went. The girl had no guile whatsoever. But Klaus, _that rat bastard_ , he'd known exactly what he was doing.

Katherine was going to rip Stefan's heart out and eat it, the image had been keeping her going for the last 500 years and she would be damned if Klaus made her miss that glorious moment. She'd eat his heart too if she got the chance, Caroline's feelings be damned. There were plenty more fish in the sea.

Arming herself with her father's sword and her sister's necklace, Katherine eyes the house she'd spent 500 years in one last time before swinging herself over the balcony. Movement from the corner of her eye causes her to take a quick detour toward the stable, and the sight leaves her feeling just a little calmer.

Caroline would have left her the horse, which means the bitch at least felt guilty. The pointless gesture warms the cockles of her heart as she sets off at a bruising pace. If she runs at top speed, Katherine can make it to the Wall by dark and lay claim to her prize.

* * *

The cries to let the gates open sound around her, and only a tiny sliver of light opens between the doors as the Ancestral Guard maneuvers around her, pulling her toward the safety of the Wall. Caroline was still rattled from crossing the Shades that lurked in the very edge of the forests. They had barely glanced her way.

 _A dead thing_.

Katherine's words echo through the intentionally blank space in her mind. She can't think about this right now, not until the sun comes up. She'd ridden hard over the course of the day, she could only think of her poor horse who deserved a year off at this point. She'd initially sidestepped the Shades she'd run into, but once she'd realized their disinterest, Caroline had shot like an arrow through their ranks.

Let whoever led them know that she would be there to stand guard against the Wall, that she would stand shoulder to shoulder with her fellow guardsmen, with her friends.

Enzo approaches as she rides through the gates, pulling the horse to a stop just in front of him and climbing off the poor mount. Her legs are stiff as all get out, but she manages to stay standing. Bonnie is just behind him, a wild grin and raised eyebrows. She must look a mess, Caroline realizes, the ribbon holding her ponytail together had fallen out a ways back and there's no way that Katherine's clothes had survived that ride, despite holding together for the first part of the journey.

But when she looks down, the damn skirt is just as beautiful as it ever was, flipping in the wind that stirred around her ankles. The top clung to her wrists and scooped elegantly down her neckline, the only interruption was the band from the sword that hung against her spine. The wild and fearsome Boudica, Katherine had called her at one point with a ghost of a smirk. The edge of Caroline's lip quirked up; even when down and out for the count, Katherine had made sure that Caroline would make an appearance fit for her station.

"Well now, Gorgeous, you're quite the sight for sore eyes," Enzo bows his head, keeping his eyes on her. Bonnie and the Ancestral Guard watch him carefully, waiting for any indication of what he's actually doing.

"Long live the Queen."


	8. No Care

Hello! I apologize for the delay, I work late and my job is draining. Two more to go after this.

* * *

 **No Care**

* * *

Private Forbes stands with her back to the Wall. It was 6 feet thick and solid stone, but she was sure that some unnatural cold still seeped from between the brick and mortar structure. Shifting her crossbow on her back, she eyes her perimeter. It's late afternoon now, and she registers the weird feeling in her stomach as anxiety. She hadn't slept despite all of Enzo's warnings, but she suspected he understood. Sleep had been rare since the attack on the Wall, but not after tonight. She shivers at the thought.

A breeze sends her skirt whipping in the air, but the flag 50 feet away doesn't so much as flutter. There are only a couple of flames that flicker about the perimeter, but Caroline knows these won't last the hour. The Shades were restless on the other side of the Wall, their commander was growing restless as well.

But she watches, her back to the fortress and her face toward the edge of the forest. She watches for the Hybrid and she knows she is not alone in that. She also watches for Katherine, the lynchpin. Despite Klaus' lack of trust that still had Caroline bristling, she knew that Katherine's part had yet to be realized and that the Wall would not see dawn without her.

"Hey," Bonnie appears, coffees in hand, and leans back against the Wall with Caroline. She hadn't even heard her friend approach which Caroline knows is a sure sign of sleep deprivation. If they made it out alive after tonight, she was going to sleep for a damn week.

"You're a saint, Bonnie," Caroline grins, accepting the warm cup.

"You do realize I'm out here because Enzo made that totally off the wall comment, right? Well, I mean, I was worried about you out in the woods with Mr. Sunshine too, but I figured I'd ask you about all of that tomorrow. Right now I'm a lot more concerned about his whole long live the queen thing because that was totally weird, right? Or..."

"Isn't rambling usually my M.O.?" Caroline hums, taking a sip of the coffee. Bonnie laughs nervously and Caroline worries about the task she's asked her friends to help her with. Bonnie, although innocent in this, would not walk away unscathed and that fact unsettled Caroline down in her bones. "I don't know how much there is to say about the whole," Caroline gestures uselessly, "thing. I really don't remember much from before I was eight, but all signs point to Mystic Falls. And I guess we're running with it."

"Damn, girl," both women are watching the trees when a lone figure pops out from the woods. "And here I thought my relationship with Enzo was drama. You got double trouble."

"At least," Caroline agrees."Is it bad that a tiny part of me is hoping this whole thing goes south tonight so I don't have to deal with everything else tomorrow?"

"You're supposed to be the optimistic one, Care!" Bonnie shoves her shoulder playfully and Caroline is just thankful that Bonnie doesn't chastise her about the tiny hope they all died. "So where does Mr. Sunshine fall into this?"

"Bonnie Bennett," Caroline turns and grins, "we are about to face certain death and you're talking about boys?"

"Caroline Forbes," Bonnie mocks, "we are not going to die tonight so of course I'm talking boys. We've got the Ancestral Guard, some of the gifted students from Whitmore as back up, and your Hybrid. You and I will live to chat about boys for a very long time."

"Yeah, well, he's not my anything. Not to mention, he was a total dick when I left a few days ago, how did you manage to come to the assumption that he and I are suddenly a thing?"

"That's how it always starts! Enemies to friends to lovers," Bonnie moans, "I live for it." Caroline laughs and takes a long sip of the crappy base coffee. She'd totally missed it and she sure as hell missed Bonnie.

Enzo had begged off not long after she'd gotten back, he needed to run another couple situations with the students they were borrowing for the night and organize the few troops they actually had. He'd been preparing for a disaster type scenario since she'd left and Caroline couldn't have been more thankful.

She did feel a little bad about leaving Klaus in the middle of nowhere, even if he had totally deserved it. But she'd also known that he was safe and was able to handle himself, so she didn't spend too much time worrying about him. She was trying to instead focus on her hope that Katherine was actually on her way by now. Caroline didn't believe in putting all her eggs in one basket but as much as she loved the Ancestral Guard, they'd lost four men against 20 shades and there were at least 200 waiting just beyond the treeline.

"Bonnie, do you know anything about Shades?" Caroline asks after a moment of silence. The figure is fast approaching the Wall; she knows it's Klaus.

"No a whole lot," Bonnie admits, "they're pretty low level on the Other Side and they drag the spirits of the living over there when they can get into their minds. Not sure exactly how they do that, but it's through touching. They can be killed with a headshot using any weapon with the ancestor's symbols. I think at this point you'd know more than I do, so why are you asking?" Bonnie sends her a curious look. She'd been eyeing Klaus' approaching form as well, no doubt questioning why the two had arrived a couple of hours apart.

"I walked right by them," Caroline keeps her voice low and Bonnie can barely hear it over the call of the guard to escort Klaus through the gate. "They barely even glanced my way."

* * *

Enzo had gathered the Ancestral Guard in his office for what might have been the last time. Despite Bonnie's unending optimism, that thought weighed heavily on all of them. Even Haley had quit with her sarcastic quips, a sure sign that things had quickly gone to hell.

Klaus was running a finger along Enzo's book collection much the same way he had the liquor bottles at Mystic Grill. His tell, she realized, when he knew he had to say something that he didn't want to. He'd done it in the kitchen a few times too, dragging his fingers along the boxes of expired food. Maybe he'd even contemplated telling her about his plan to leave Katherine behind, a stupid assumption based on paranoia.

Bonnie was watching the two, eyes moving between where Caroline was perched as far away from the bookcase as possible and where Klaus kept sneaking glances. Actually, Caroline realized, literally everyone was sneaking glances at them. Even Enzo was watching. She resolved to keep her eyes toward the opposite window. Well, for the most part at least.

Her eyes were on him though when a blonde bullet shot through the door and launched herself at him. Two men followed, one looking much older in formal wear and the other wearing the traditional Whitmore uniform. Bonnie sends her look that says who the fuck wears a suit to a battle. Caroline is embarrassed to admit that despite their time together she knows nothing actually useful about Klaus.

"My brothers and sister," Klaus explains to the stunned room when he and his sister finished their hushed conversation. He doesn't even look at her when he says it and she's not sure whether to be a little hurt. She did leave him in the middle of hostile territory without any mode of transport after yelling at him about being an awful person, but still.

"Right," Enzo comments with raised eyebrows.

"I run Whitmore's ancestral magic program," the suit brother tells him.

"You'd be Elijah then? Very good, I've been wanting to thank you for sending the students over," Enzo stands to shake hands with the man. "I'm going to lay out a semblance of a plan here," Enzo starts when he sits back down, Elijah moving back toward the other brother's side. Klaus and his sister remain at the back of the room by the bookcases, neither making an effort to move forward.

"We haven't been able to get anything more than an estimated count of what we're up against, everyone I send out comes back dead. Caroline was able to give me a rough number, but I'm afraid that doesn't do us a whole world of good in this case. Hybrid, were you about to pick up anything when you were out there?"

"Shades aren't exactly the easiest things to see in the dark, now are they?"

"Niklaus," Elijah's tone is exasperated and warning. Enzo could not look more unimpressed and Caroline could literally kill him.

"Sorry," Klaus doesn't sound sorry when he looks toward Enzo, "I handle stress with sarcasm and misplaced anger." His answer sounds rehearsed, and given Elijah's expression, Caroline doesn't doubt the origin of the words. "From my readings, I've been able to surmise that Shades have only a single motivation and that's to drag as many souls to the Other Side as they're able. It doesn't make them whole or bring them closer to death so I'm still a little murky on the motivation for that. They need someone in control of the reigns to make this kind of movement and that person has to be close."

"Stefan will be here," Caroline breathes.

"Or Damon," Klaus adds.

"Maybe we'd actually have that answer if you hadn't drugged our source," Caroline can't help herself from throwing that barb. Klaus and his blonde sister glare in her direction while Enzo tries to push the blood back out of his face.

"As successful as your mission sounds," Enzo begins again, sounding like he hasn't succeeded in calming, "we're operating under the assumption that we'll be facing the leader as well. I'm hoping he's stupid enough to turn up with the rest of his army instead of hiding out."

"When he does," Caroline interjects, "we all need to note that he is stronger and faster than all of us. I'm not sure what they are," a dead thing, "but whoever faces him at the end needs to be prepared for that."

"Thank you, Caroline, for that helpful information." She grins widely at Enzo. "Our strategy is going to be fairly simple, Ancestral Guard on the ground with close combat weapons," he nods toward Bonnie, "regular guard on the Wall with pre-spelled arrows along with a few strong seniors from Whitmore. Inside the Wall will be the rest of the Whitmore guard, our worst case scenario group. Bonnie, Caroline, and I will be on the ground. Klaus, you and yours will take the Wall."

"I want Caroline on the Wall with me," Klaus' tone leaves little room for argument.

"Caroline is my best close combat guard and my strongest witch, we need her on the ground."

"She's also the Queen of Mystic Falls, she needs to be protected at all costs."

"I will be on the ground," the look she shoots Klaus is deadly. "General St. John is right, I'm the only person on the Guard that is skilled with a sword and Katherine showed me a bit of magic that I think might help."

"I spoke with her, on the Other Side," Klaus has the decency to look slightly sheepish, "she's on her way. She wanted me to tell you to try fire and wind together and at all costs, don't get yourself killed."

"Is that really what she said?" Caroline doesn't believe his glossed over story for a second and this is not the time for holding back anything.

"Well," he winces, "she made a lewd comment about your...encounter in the back room and said to light those fuckers up. If you died, she told me, we'd all be fucked."

"What did she have to say to you? I want to hear it verbatim."

"Again, the lewd comment which I won't repeat among civilized company," he mutters.

"Klaus," she interrupts sharply, "tell me what the fuck she said."

"She said she hopes you fight like you fuck, which I'm sure was...well, she said that, then said light those fuckers up with wind and fire and don't fucking die," Caroline raises an eyebrow at him, Katherine Pierce didn't end that conversation without a final jab. Klaus seems to realize what Caroline is waiting for, and sighs impatiently, "she also threatened to feed me my own dick if I ever pulled anything like that again."

"That was very helpful, Klaus, thank you." Caroline smiles prettily and turns back toward Enzo who looked like he might not survive his inevitable aneurysm.

"If the two of you are finished," Elijah steps forward, "I'd like to ready my students as nightfall is quickly approaching. Rebekah, Kol, with me. Niklaus, please...be careful."

"The Ancestral Guard will go with you as well," Enzo waves his people off with a wave of his hand, watching grimly as the filter through the door. "Bonnie," he catches her attention, "wait for me?" Bonnie ducks her head and leans against the door frame.

"Alright then, now for the more depressing news," Enzo starts, standing so he can lean on the front of his desk. "We are outnumbered and we are out magiced. I'd say we were outgunned, but we all know those don't work on these fuckers. So our goal here is to minimize damage. If we win, that's fantastic, really. But be prepared to lose, and when you do, take down as many of them as you can. This is our blaze of glory and all, so make it count."

"Fuck," Klaus hisses, looking around for something. Enzo looks decidedly unimpressed, watching cooly when Klaus stalks back over to her. "I've a foolish and fragile spine, sweetheart," she doesn't have time to ponder whatever the hell he's talking about before his forehead is pressed against hers and he's pressing a small knife in her hand.

"Klaus," with her other hand against his chest, he pulls away with a fierce look. "What is…" she's turning the knife over in her hand, looking for any identifying marks.

"It's mine, not the Hybrid's," his tone is earnest and his eyes hold hers, "I used to think it would save my life when I was little, I...take it with you. I want you to take it tonight."

"Thank you," she presses it close to her chest, fingers curled around the small handle. She should give him something too, she thinks, for luck. "Here," she shrugs her crossbow off her shoulder, arrows clacking together in their holster as she passes it to him. "It's not like a childhood memory or anything, but I'm pretty attached to it."

"I will find you in life or I will walk with you in death," she watches his eyes dart across the room with a heavy sigh before they meet hers again with more intensity than she'd ever seen, "but you are not to disappear."

Her eyes trail after him as he leaves Enzo's office. Her ears follow him slamming every door on his way down the hall.

"I know you told me I was ruining your life when you left, but I think I should get some credit for whatever the fuck just happened."

"Seriously, Enzo?" He only gives her a dark grin in return, slinging an arm around her shoulders and then Bonnie's as they make their way to the front lines.

* * *

It's dark now, finally. The anticipation was making her itchy. Caroline still wears the skirt Katherine had given her, and the long sleeved black top. Bonnie had brought her her spare uniform but somehow this felt more fitting. If Caroline Forbes was going to die tonight, she was going to look devastating doing it. Enzo had told her that her mother would be proud if not a bit concerned by her impractical choices.

There was no wind now, not even a tiny breeze as she bounced on her heels wondering if maybe wearing a skirt to a battle was a terrible decision. Elijah was still wearing a suit, so she didn't feel quite so much like a sore thumb, but the doubt had already anchored. Caroline shakes her head, trying desperately to focus. It wasn't like she could ask them to hold up for ten minutes while she put some pants on. Or maybe...

"Open the gates part way," Enzo calls. "No use in holding them out when we're aiming to kill them." A nervous titter goes up among the ground troops. Enzo had called for reinforcements, but the army had claimed that the Wall had the only collection of magical soldiers and they could spare no more to what was sure to be a bloodbath. Bonnie had actually told her that, her friend standing on her other side now.

"Light it up!" Klaus calls from the top of the Wall. Her eyes find him on the structure as the doors open and on his command, the pre-spelled arrows catch flame and launch into the Shade army on the other side of the Wall. The arrows don't stop the Shades pouring through the small crevice.

That's when the screaming starts.

She doesn't focus on it, can't actually. Caroline does her best to tune out the noise and swing her sword with as much ferocity as she can into the necks of the Shades. She sees Liv go down, spindly shadow fingers reaching over her face. Enzo decapitates the thing with a blow, but it's too late. He keeps swinging.

The Shades don't ever reach for Caroline, they don't even try to approach her. If she wasn't careful, they would try to walk right through her. She swirls, trying to catch the neck of a passing Shade, but it's already gone. They've made a wide berth around her now, not even attempting to come within 20 feet.

"Dumb as anything, but they get the job done." Caroline pivots again, catching the speaker. He's tall and good-looking with dark hair, pale skin. Honestly, he was exactly what she expected when Katherine had told her story.

"Stefan I'm assuming?" He gives her a mocking bow. "Klaus totally thought it'd be Damon."

"It's always the quiet ones, isn't it?" He asks, a lopsided smile stretching his lips. The grin he gives her is more unsettling than anything. He looks unhinged. "Oh, I can see why Katherine is so attached to you. And Klaus too! You're a busy girl."

"Not as busy as you," she needs backup, shit, this wasn't supposed to be her fight.

"Oh, these guys," Stefan laughs, "they only took me 500 years. Well," he pouts, "and the lives of my brother and the woman I loved."

"I heard about that," Caroline is already kicking herself. She needs to be leading him down a different path of conversation, they're getting too close to topics that might mean the end of her life.

"It doesn't really matter anymore," Stefan shrugs, "because I'll be taking everyone you love too, like your family took everything from me. And it even appears that Katherine has already started my job for me." The comment throws her enough that he's suddenly in front of her with his sword ready. Fuck.

The thing about Caroline Forbes is that every ounce of her peppy optimism is matched by an equal part fierce loyalty to the people she loves. So when she readies her blade, she prepared to die in order to bring Stefan down. She's really hoping she won't, despite what she'd told Bonnie earlier, but she's ready. Klaus will make sure she gets across safely, she trusts in that. But she isn't going down without a fight.

Their fighting is more of a dance than anything, neither able to draw blood. Perry, attack, defend, attack, feign, attack. Over and over. Stefan is starting to realize that Caroline is better with a sword than he is, by miles. 500 years of inactivity will do that to a man. Perry, attack, defend, attack, feign, attack. Caroline puts her all in it. He's faster and stronger than she is, by miles. Whatever ran through Katherine's veins must run through his. Whatever magic that was would do that to a man. Perry, attack, defend, attack, feign, attack.

Both seem to realize they're in a deadlock. Stefan may have had speed and strength, but he did not have magic and he was not a swordsman. Caroline had some speed, improved upon by magic, and a good amount of human strength. Stefan stepped back to get an eyeful of the woman he had underestimated.

"You," Caroline hisses, "cannot take what's mine. That applies to my kingdom, that applies to the Guard, and that applies to him." They're circling each other, both the Guard and the Shades have enough sense to leave the two alone while they go at it. There's blood dripping from Stefan's mouth, and Caroline recalls suddenly the way the blood had dripped down Katherine's chin the night at the Grill.

"You'd go so far as to claim the Hybrid as your own?" Stefan smirks, angling closer to her with his sword. His teeth are bloody too, sharp and deadly. Popping the air bubble in her elbow, Caroline bends her knees slightly, anticipating the blow Stefan is about to levy.

"He," metal shrieks when the two clash again, Caroline parrying while Stefan launches an aggressive offense. She spins, trying to catch his back, but he's just a fraction too fast for her.

"Belongs," she feigns left, catching him off guard. He manages to catch himself before her blade caught his right shoulder. He's surprised, she can tell. He moves a hell of a lot faster than he should, but he was no swordsman and that would play out to her advantage. Her mother had taught her many things, but fencing had been one of Liz's favorite activities.

"To," Stefan attempts to fake her out on his next attack, but her sword finds its home in his heart.

"Me," she hisses finally, pulling him close as he gasps for air. His bloody mouth grins victoriously and it throws her off enough to make a fatal error.

"Then I'll take you from him," Stefan rasps out. Shit, she can feel the sharp point sink into her side, angling upward into her rib cage.

She can hear screaming behind her, Klaus she thinks, but someone slams into her and Stefan, knocking them from each other's grips. A body, she can surmise, maybe Katherine? Her brain isn't putting it together. She hurts, she knows, and she's dying. She knows that too.

The grass is cold and damp. Dew or blood? She doesn't care, she decides. She just wants to be warm and dry and this really isn't how she wanted to die. But Caroline doesn't get a choice in the matter, Stefan's blade had made it through enough of her vital organs that Caroline knew this was it. Oh, she knows, she had so many regrets and no time to resolve a single one. Klaus doesn't make it to her side before her vision goes fuzzy and then black, her last rites still tumbling from her lips. Caroline Forbes remembers no more.

 _"Leave my bones to sleep,_ _all my layers will become reeds, all my limbs will become trees, all my children will become me. And in the darkness I will meet my creators."_


	9. How

One more to go, and it'll just be a short epilogue. I should have it up in the next couple days! Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed, I very much appreciate it.

* * *

 **How**

* * *

She'd been to the Other Side, had walked through the darkness beside Klaus before. But this time isn't like the last. She'd half expected him to turn up, to at least say goodbye and maybe even make the trek with her. She thinks she can hear his voice, maybe even feel his rough hands on hers, but he never appears in the darkness.

She'd tried to make the long walk by herself, once she realized he wasn't going to appear, but Caroline finds that she is only able to walk in circles. At least, she thinks she's walking in circles...it all looks the same. It's all dark.

"Hello, Caroline," the voice startles her. It's fading, all static at the edges like a recording from far away. It's not the first time she's heard him, but this is the closest she's heard him before and that kindles a spark of hope in her. Maybe she won't have to walk this path alone.

"Klaus?" She asks, looking for him in the darkness. She can still hear his voice, but it keeps getting further and further away. She starts moving toward where she thinks she hears it, first walking and then running. She catches little blips here and there as she chases his voice, but she can't quite keep up.

Coming to a halt, Caroline lets her breath catch up with her. He's talking, about what she can't quite make out, but he seems to be telling a story. Why can't she see him? Is she on the wrong side of the Other Side? She doesn't even know if that's possible, but if she's in a place where even the Hybrid can't get to, she's clearly somewhere wrong. Caroline pauses, begins to catalog all of what she knows to be true because there had to be some answer as to why she can't cross.

The war would have been won at this point, Mystic Falls and the world beyond the Wall saved from whatever dark love had threatened to consume it. Caroline had had enough of love triangles to last the rest of her lifetime and then some. She hoped that Klaus would free Katherine from whatever binding spell held her, but she also knew that Klaus would need some guidance. He was a slow reader and there wasn't any doubt that some small tendrils of Stefan Salvatore's love for Elena still hung on to their world.

Oh gods, she really hoped she didn't have to walk the Other Side with Stefan. That might be the actual worst. Not that her way had been lit up at any point. Was she supposed to wait or? Sitting down on the floor she couldn't see, Caroline heaves a great sigh. Maybe her last rites hadn't been said in the heat of battle. Katherine sure as hell wouldn't waste breath on those. Maybe no one did.

"Leave my bones to sleep," she murmurs, spreading out on her back staring up at the darkness, "all my layers will become reeds, all my limbs will become trees, all my children will become me. And in the darkness I will meet my creators."

"No," Klaus' voice echoes around her, "no, you're not dead yet. You're not dead yet."

"Don't sound so sad, Klaus. I protected my home, I protected my friends and my people, and I protected you. It's not how I wanted to go, but it's a damn good way, don't you think?" It was the first time his voice had answered her and after however many days, Gods, it's nice to talk to someone. It's nice to talk to him. What she wouldn't give for a lifetime of talking to him.

She would regret not having time with him, even to discover they were all wrong together. She would regret not standing beside Bonnie and Enzo when they managed to pull their heads out of their asses and actually have a relationship, get married and have adorable babies. She would regret not seeing Katherine free.

"Caroline, if you think I'm going to let you die you're a lot more dense than I thought." Well that was rude.

"I guess I can't die until I smack you for that comment," she mutters more to herself, but his laugh that fills the air around her is making her tear up. "What do you mean, let me die? I'm dead, Stefan killed me," propping herself up on her elbows, she scans the area. Nothing changes though, nothing has changed.

"Come back to me, love," his voice cracks, "come back to me."

She doesn't. Caroline drifts in the blackness.

* * *

"You had one job, Princess," Katherine's voice filters through next and she has no idea how long it's been since Klaus spoke. "Well, you know, two jobs actually. I needed someone to watch me rip Stefan's heart out and eat it and I needed you not to die. You fell down on both of those."

"Can't win 'em all, I guess," she comments lightly. Caroline was actually thrilled to have missed Katherine eating Stefan's heart.

"Oh, my poor sweet Summer child," Katherine tuts somewhere in the darkness. "You're not dead yet, not by a long ass mile."

"Pretty sure Stefan killed me. I mean, I was there so I'm considering myself an expert on the topic and now I'm stuck here. Where is here, do you know?"

"Open your damn eyes." Well ok then, Caroline huffs. The sky is still black, the walls are still black. She says as much to Katherine. "You... _focus_. Focus on me, my voice, before I smack it into you." Caroline focuses. She thinks about her home on the Wall, she thinks about Mystic Falls and the vines and trees growing through everything. She can picture Bonnie, Enzo, the Guard. She can see Katherine and Klaus in her mind's eye. _Focus…_

"Ow!" Caroline's eyes snap open. "What the hell, Katherine?"

"You were taking too long." She shrugs from Caroline's bedside. Her feet are propped by beside Caroline's knees while she leans back in her chair.

"Taking too long? How am I even alive?" She looks around the room as she asks Katherine her questions. It's the infirmary on the Wall, there's a window facing the outside world. No windows face toward Mystic Falls. Caroline hadn't been here often but it certainly isn't the place she'd imagine the afterworld to look like. Which meant that Klaus and Katherine were right.

Oh gods, she was actually going to have to face everything, wasn't she?

"Yeah, small problem with the alive part," Katherine frowns, suddenly looking a lot more sheepish than she ever had before. "When you and Klaus went to the Other Side, I might have sped up the healing process for you. But, to be fair, I did warn you not to die, and you went and died, so…" she shrugs and hands Caroline a cup with a lid and a straw.

"Are you saying this is my fault?" Caroline shrieks. Katherine frowns but nods her head simultaneously. "I can't even believe," she doesn't get to finish before Katherine interrupts her.

"Look, let's just agree to disagree because I really don't care to have this conversation. If you have questions, ask me, but what's done is done." Guilt, that was the foreign emotion in Katherine's veins. She hadn't met Caroline's eyes yet.

Caroline stares out the window, processing why exactly she was looking out the window. She felt fine. Probably a lot better than most people did after a fatal stabbing, actually. The sun is still shining and a breeze floats lazily through the window. It's warm and smells like spring.

"Aren't you going to ask?" Katherine asks quietly from her side. Caroline's eyes snap back to the other woman.

"What did you make me?" Caroline hesitates, not wanting to ask what Katherine had done. Katherine had given her another shot, another chance at life. It sounded more accusatory than the question she asks instead.

"I made you like me," Katherine's voice cracks. "I made you...the Hybrid's book calls us vampires. We drink blood to survive," Katherine nods toward the cup in Caroline's hands, "and the sun," Katherine passing something from the side table to her, "a ring for the sun."

"Blood," Caroline turns the word over in her mouth and eyes the cup warily. "Will I kill people?"

"Not if you don't want to," Katherine's tone is subdued and careful, "I do...sometimes. Stefan did, he...I suppose it doesn't matter anymore. But no, you don't need to. You're faster and stronger too, like...well, like me and Stefan. And you won't die, not without a stake to the heart or getting your head cut off."

Caroline nods, still processing. Katherine's information is...a lot. For someone who had expected to be already dead, deja mort her mind supplies with a dark humor, this was...a lot. Caroline Forbes, Queen of Mystic Falls, member of the Ancestral Guard of the Wall, and vampire. She takes a sip of the blood Katherine had given her, not even wanted to ask the question about where she'd even gotten it. One sip turns into desperate gulps and it's gone too soon. Katherine has another and Caroline is just as greedy with it.

"I'm sorry," Katherine actually sounds sorry too, "I'm not sorry that I had to do what I did for you to survive, but I am sorry that I didn't tell you. We're supposed to have each other's backs and not telling you was wrong."

It isn't ok, Caroline doesn't even bother with the words, but she does understand Katherine's motives. Grabbing at her friend's hand, she grips it tightly enough that Katherine hisses for her to loosen up a bit. New strength, Katherine waves it away with a grimace.

"After 500 years of servitude, what are you going to do with your freedom?" Caroline asks after a few minutes. She could handle a few minutes of silence, but not too much. The cups remain discarded beside her bed, facts to be dealt with when she got over being alive.

"Travel, I guess," Katherine frowns, "I won't be able to go too far because Klaus is an impossibly slow reader and gods know what kind of trouble you two could get into."

"Isn't he, though?" Caroline laughs with bloody teeth.

"I know, right? The number of times he could have gotten us killed because it takes him like an hour to read a damn page," Katherine rolls her eyes. "I'm going to let Klaus know that you're up and see if I can't get that brother of his to loosen his tie a little, if you know what I mean."

"I actually don't," Caroline watches Katherine stretch like a cat when she stands.

"What I mean, my poor sweet Summer child," Katherine smirks from the doorway, "is that I'm going to find a closet to suck him off in."

"Ew! Katherine, seriously?" She can hear her cackling all the way down the hall. Caroline had no doubts in Katherine's abilities and pitied Klaus' poor brother. Katherine was the kind of woman that could suck out a man's soul through his dick.

Mentally scrubbing her mind of _that_ image, Caroline readies herself for her impending visitor. Given that she and Klaus had left things on weird terms and all. She had left him almost defenseless in the middle of Mystic Falls with a psychotic immortal megalomaniac running around and then they'd exchanged almost powerless weapons before battle.

Oh no, Caroline realizes, where does she stand with him? And where the hell does he stand with her? She clearly likes him, her stomach gets that weird feeling around him sometimes, but is it like a _thing_? Like, does she only feel this way because they were thrown together for a world threatening problem that was super life or death or because they were actually compatible?

By the time Klaus lets out a breath from the doorway, Caroline has managed to work herself up into a ball of anxiety that only heightens when he comes to sit on her bed with her. He looks obnoxiously stoic for a moment before the uptick of his lips gives him away.

"Hey," Caroline gravels. She could literally punch her own vocal chords for that.

"Hello, Caroline," he reaches out and trails his finger along her cheekbone. His hello sounded so much smoother than her's and it's killing her a little bit. "You gave me a bit of a scare."

"How much did you see?" His hand drops to hers, gripping her fingers and smoothing his thumb across her knuckles. She means the question with a little humor. _How much did you see_ was what she asked Enzo when she and Bonnie had too much to drink on their nights off. _How much did you see_ was when she did something incredibly stupid and found out she hadn't been alone. _How much did you see_ apparently has a much heavier meaning with Klaus, she can read it on his face.

"I was coming to you and I just," Klaus pauses, focuses instead on their hands, "I failed you. I watched it happen, his sword went from underneath your ribcage and I would have sworn on my life that I could see the tip of it coming from your shoulder and I just," he doesn't finish that statement. _Fucking hell._

"Hey," she ducks her head, looking to meet his eyes, "you found me. I'm here and I'm alive, you found me." _Gods_ , the knot in her stomach is suddenly her heart and intestines too. Klaus had her all wrapped up around him. She did have a _thing_ for him and it might already be serious enough to even fall out of the _thing_ category into something more concrete. After a freaking week, her mother was probably rolling in her grave.

"You had to die and be born again as a creature from my book, Caroline. You can't tell me that this makes you happy." Caroline chews her lip because he had her there. His thumb doesn't stop its constant motion over her knuckles.

"I didn't want to meet my creators with regrets, and I had so many. This...you're right, I didn't want this, but it doesn't mean we won't make the best of it. It'll just be a little more...bloody." She grins at him with watery eyes. She'd almost died, would have if Katherine hadn't given her monster's blood. She'd almost died. She should have, and she can't actually regret any consequence that might result from being a vampire because it gave her more time. She'd almost died.

 _She'd almost died_. The fact hits her like a train.

"Sweetheart," he starts, but the tears are already leaking from the corners of her eyes.

"I didn't, I didn't think I'd see you again and I have things to say and do and I didn't," her voice breaks into gentle sobs when she presses her face into the crook of his neck.

"We have all the time in the world, now don't we? We can say what might take lifetimes, we can see a thousand cities, and we will see each other countless times. I told you, Caroline Forbes, I will find you in life or I will walk with you in death. That is an oath I intend to take very seriously," his hand still grips hers, but his other had moved to make comforting circles on her back.

"I've known you for a week," Caroline sniffs from his neck, her breath hot against him.

"Let's start with another week then, and we'll see where that takes us, alright? And if it's a good week, we can try another week and another after that until we decide that we're completely sick of each other or we stop counting the weeks."

"I drink blood," he can hear the tears welling in her voice again.

"Yes, well, not exactly ideal, but nothing I'm sure we can't work around," he frowns. She stifles a mournful laugh into his neck. Shifting, Klaus manages to maneuver them so they're reclining next to each other. Sleeping on the ground had been murder on his back, hunching over Caroline's bedside had done nothing to improve that situation.

"I want to drink _your_ blood," she groans.

"I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time experimenting with that one day, but the middle of the Wall's infirmary is really not the place I'd like to start that particular habit." Muttering in agreement, Caroline shifts so that her head is resting on his shoulder instead of pressed against his neck.

"Is everyone ok?" She asks. She'd meant to ask Katherine how everything had turned out, but then had come to the almost immediate conclusion that Katherine probably wouldn't care as much about anyone else.

"We lost a few members of the Wall, all non magical, but killing Stefan took most of the Shades with him and Katherine...she saved our asses after scaring the hell out of everyone there."

"When she ate Stefan's heart?"

"Yes," Klaus grimaces at Caroline's blasé tone, "when she ate Stefan's heart." Caroline hums in acknowledgment. "She and I have gotten the fires relit and added extra protection to the Wall. We're currently working on a more effective stockpile of weapons as well, should any more emergencies pop up."

"That's good," between the stress of the week and the warm air, Caroline finds herself drifting closer and closer toward sleep. Klaus drawing lazy circles on her shoulder wasn't helping. Her friends were safe and her mind had a lot to process so maybe sleep was good. This sleep was going to be a lot better than the last sleep she had, she was sure of it.


	10. To Belong

Did I say a couple of days? So I work a multitude of jobs that probably total 3 part time jobs, but every once in a while, one of those becomes a full time job. All of a sudden, I haven't slept in a week and things start blurring together and I can't pull a coherent sentence from my lips. It's the definition of a mess. I digress...

This takes a notably darker turn, so beware, but all things must come to an end. I appreciate all of the reviews and reads, they've warmed my email box up significantly.

Catch you all on the flip side, em

* * *

 ** _To Belong_**

* * *

 _Leave my bones to sleep_

 _All my layers will become reeds_

 _All my limbs will become trees_

 _All my children will become me_

 _And in the darkness I will meet my creators._

No one told her how hard it would be to watch moss grow into the inscriptions on the tombstones of the people she had loved long ago. Katherine hadn't been there for that lesson, she had long since passed to the Other Side. As had Bonnie and Enzo, all of Klaus' family. Anyone she had known from her previous lives, they were all dead now.

The world had grown more lonely without them, she knew that, had expected that. But after all these years, she hadn't ever quite found anyone to fill those holes in her heart and they'd only grown with time.

Klaus is there in that quiet way he has been forever now, almost delicate with her because she's been so fragile for so long now. He's watched her, she knows, he's watched her and knows she doesn't have much left in her. She was so glad he was here though, she didn't want to be alone, not now.

"It's been a long life, a long reign for us both. It's time, my love." Caroline doesn't even look at him, her fingernails bleeding from her attempts to pull the moss from the porous stone of each grave marker.

He'd felt it, he'd felt it years ago. Sometimes if he spared his hands a quick glance, they no longer looked like his own. His face was so familiar that it seemed to belong to someone else. Klaus wasn't sure if he relished how well he knew himself or hated it. Caroline's face had become such a constant that it was all he could see when he closed his eyes. Their century apart had not tempered that.

"We've loved each other dearly though, haven't we?" His hand smooths over her hair, he hadn't expected to find her like this, pulling apart at the seams after so long. Caroline Forbes had not worn time well. The day she'd forgotten her mother's face had become a terrible year. The days she forgot Bonnie's face, Enzo's, Rebekah's. She'd never recovered, not fully.

She hadn't said a word, but he knows that she's forgotten Katherine's face.

"There are no more words, Klaus," she looks up at him and oh, it's dark, but she has always shone so brightly. "There are no new ways to tell you how I've loved you, no more words to…" she looks back down, her fingers already healed. "I don't think I've spoken in six months."

He doesn't say anything. She's right, there isn't anything to say. A Caroline without words is not one he knows.

"Will you walk with me in Death?"

"I will walk with you in Death, Caroline. I've always said I would."

"Will you stay with me in Death?" The question is curious, perhaps the last bit of curiosity she has left. There is no judgement, no accusation. She won't hold him so tightly that he cannot escape her should he choose. It's what he's always loved about her.

"I'm not sure yet," honesty was all they ever required of each other, and honesty was what he gave her. Caroline Forbes had not worn time well. She had initially, the first 300 years, before the nostalgia had set in. Before the Wall had come down in a terrifying display of firepower, bodies strewn like confetti. Before she'd forgotten the faces of the people she'd loved. Before she and Klaus had become ghosts to one another, two drums beating in time in an empty space.

"I don't want you to forget my face," she searches his, eyes tired and watery. He couldn't, not if he lived another thousand years could he forget her face.

"I'm not sure I could," he smooths a hand down her cheekbone. Her hand comes up to hold his against her cheek for a moment, pressing it tightly into her own. After a breath, she removes it, still holding it tightly when she gives him the stake she'd brought with her.

Caroline Forbes' death is a quiet affair, she passes with little more than a sigh in the arms of the man she had loved for the entirety of her long life. It's cloudy out, they sit underneath the willow tree they had buried their loved ones under. Klaus gives her last rites in barely more than a whisper, the only time he'd ever said them for anyone. And when he's done, he holds his own knife in his hands, over his own heart. And he hesitates.

* * *

 _Leave my bones to sleep_

 _All my layers will become reeds_

 _All my limbs will become trees_

 _All my children will become me_

 _And in the darkness I will meet my creators._


End file.
